Hunter of the Dark
by Darkside524
Summary: When DiZ, Riku and Namine are attacked by a Hunter of the Dark, Namine accidentally re-awakens it's human identity. Deciding to ally itself with them, the Hunter goes on a quest to a world filled with giant monsters and powerful ninjas. A world called the Elemental Nations.
1. Chapter 1

Hello.

Ok, to start of with. I'm not an expert on all things Naruto, or Kingdom Hearts so I may get a few things wrong from time to time. Should this happen then please let me know and I will correct any mistakes ASAP. Same goes for spelling an punctuation errors. No matter how many time I re-read these some still slip through.

Now that that's out of the way. This story is set just after Chain of Memories and during the Chunin Exams.

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. Any songs (or parodies there of) are the property of their respective owners. Any guest characters (which I will not name due to spoilers, and because I haven't thought of them all yet) are the property of their respective owners. No animals were harmed in...no wait, that's not exactly...well...

On with the show.

* * *

People like to think that they know everything about their world. They're wrong. For a starter they all think that their world is the one and only when there are actually countless other worlds out there filled with wonder and magic and, in most cases, danger. One of the few things that all worlds share in common are the Heartless. Creatures born from darkness that lurk in the shadows, gathering strength, preying on the weak and vulnerable. Right now a large pack of Heartless are hunting in a world called Twilight Town. Unfortunately for them the prey they'd chosen are far from helpless.

On the outskirts of town, past the woods, a gang of Neo Shadows advanced on the large iron gates of the Old Mansion. They made it about three steps before they were cut down by a boy in a black cloak with shoulder length silver hair. More Heartless rose up out of the ground, surrounding the young man.

"That the best you can do?" he asked in a bored tone. The Heartless charged at him from all sides but he leapt up into the air, then sliced down at the attacking horde. The moment his sword touched the ground in released a magical shockwave that destroyed the rest of the Heartless.

"Riku." The boy turned and saw DiZ standing in front of the gate. 'When did he get here?' he wondered. "I see that the Heartless are beginning to take note of us." continued DiZ.

"No kidding. These thing just never learn."

"Riku!" Looking past DiZ Riku saw Naminé running out of the Mansion's front door and down to the gate.

Riku was about to say 'Hello' but he was interrupted by DiZ "Naminé! You should be inside helping to restore Sora!" He did not sound pleased.

Naminé stopped just short of the gate "Well...I, heard something and when I looked out of my window I saw Heartless...and the Riku...so I..."

"You wanted to help." said Riku. Naminé smiled at him and nodded.

"A fool notion." said DiZ. Riku glared at him but him didn't seem to notice. "Naminé you have no combat ability whatsoever. All you would have done is put yourself in harms wa-"

There was a loud thud as a massive Heartless dropped to the ground right behind Naminé. It was roughly the size of a bus with a long spiked tail, dark purple spines running the length of its back and chains wrapped round its front legs that ended in three pronged hooks.

'A Hunter of the Dark' thought Riku 'So that's what's leading the Heartless here!'

The Hunter looked from DiZ to Riku before setting it's gaze on Naminé. She tried to run as the Heartless advanced but she tripped on a stone and fell. Riku ran over to help her up just as the Hunter pounced. Riku lifted his sword to deflect the ...nothing.

Riku looked up at the Heartless and saw that it had completely frozen in place. It slowly leaned to the left and fell onto its side.

"DiZ?" Riku looked at the man questioningly.

"That wasn't me." he replied.

Both of them looked at Naminé. "Well...I could see the memories inside its heart so I...brought them to the surface."

The Hunters body suddenly began to fade, becoming a black silhouette. As the trio watched the silhouette began to change shape, shrinking and twisting until it resembled a human. Once the silhouette stopped changing it solidified. The transformation was over in seconds and the Hunter now looked like a male teenager, about the same age as Riku, with black spiky hair, pale skin and dressed entirely in black apart from the red Heartless symbol on his shirt.

"Very interesting." muttered DiZ.

The now human looking Heartless groaned and began to wake up. "Where...how...arrr?"

"It can talk?" said Riku, disbelievingly.

The Heartless looked up at them and jumped to its feet. "Who are you!? Where am I!?"

A black aura began to appear around its arms. Riku thought that it was about to attack until the Heartless started panicking. "WHAT IS THIS STUFF!? GET IT OFFF!"

"Compose yourself!" commanded DiZ "It will fade if you calm down."

The Hunter didn't seem too reassured but it stopped yelling and started breathing deeply. The dark aura faded.

"What...was that?" asked the Heartless.

"You really don't know do you?" said DiZ. "What is your name?"

"My name's...is...I'm..." the Heartless looked confused, then frightened as it realised it couldn't remember it's name.

"I see. Naminé restored your sense of self but not your memories."

"What do you mean 'restored'. What happened to me!? What's going on!? And for the last time WHO ARE YOU ALL!?"

"Well, let's see. I'm Riku, this is Naminé and DiZ. You are a type of Heartless. A Hunter in the Dark to be exact. When you became a Heartless you lost your identity until Naminé restored it."

The Hunter gave Riku a confused look before yelling "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! I'm clearly not a 'Hunter of the Dark'. I'm human!"

"No. You _look _human. Underneath you are still a Heartless."

"I AM NOT A-" the Hunter flung out its arms, accidentally firing two dark bolts. One smashed into the mansion's wall, blasting a hole in the brickwork, the other went through the open front gate and collided with a tree. Riku decided to draw his sword incase the Hunter attacked them again. The sight of the blade materialising in his hand made the Hunter jump with fright. Still unwilling to believe that he was a Heartless the Hunter put too much energy into the jump and ended up on top of one of the broken stone pillars that lined the way to the mansion's front door. He didn't stay up there for long, he lost his balance and fell off, crashing head first into the floor.

"Shouldn't I be in a lot of pain right now?" asked the Hunter as he got up.

"Heartless cannot be injured so easily." said DiZ.

"OK, maybe there's something to what you're saying." There was a loud creaking sound, followed by a crash as the tree that had been struck by the dark bolt fell over.

About half an hour later the group had relocated themselves to DiZ's laboratory/base hidden inside the Mansion. Between them Riku and DiZ explained to the Hunter about the Heartless, the Worlds and the Nobodies.

"I'm still having trouble ...dealing with all this." said the Hunter once they'd finished explaining.

"You get used to it eventually." said Riku.

The Hunter looked over at Naminé, who was standing in a corner, drawing in her sketchbook. "Hey, Naminé?" She looked up from her drawing at the Hunter "Don't suppose that you can 'restore' all my memories for me? Please?"

"Well...yes. But it would take time."

"Time we don't have." said DiZ, who was sitting in front of a bank of computer screens. "Sora must be your primary focus Naminé."

"Thanks for that DiZ. I feel so valued." The Hunter started walking towards the door but he was stopped by Riku.

"Hey, I know that you have no reason to stay but...we could really use some help here."

"You want my help...um...thanks for the vote of confidence but I have a world to get back to."

"And how will you find your world?" Asked DiZ, standing up from his chair and walking over to the Hunter "There are an infinite number of worlds out there, the odds of you finding yours are slim. That's assuming your world is still there."

"Well, what else am I going to do!? Besides I'm not entirely convinced that you two are the good guys. You've both got this...inky, black stuff inside you."

Both Riku and DiZ looked stunned "You can...see our Hearts?" asked Riku.

The Hunter looked sheepish "Er...yeah. I guess that's another 'Heartless' thing. I can see light there too though so I can tell you're not all bad."

"What about me?" asked Naminé.

"You...well. I...can't see...anything in you."

The sad look on the girls face instantly made the Hunter regret telling her that.

"Naminé is a Nobody, she has no Heart." said DiZ dismissively. Riku shot him another angery look but once again he was ignored. "This is what I propose." DiZ continued "If you help us against the Nobodies and Organisation Thirteen then I will assist you in finding your world. Deal?"

The Hunter thought about it for a moment. Everything this DiZ guy said was true, he had no idea how to find his world. And without his memory he had no idea what his life there was like. Hunter decided that he would stick around for a while and help. After all, this seemed like it would be quite an adventure.

"Ok. Deal"

"Excellent."

"You're going to need a new name." said Riku "If we're all going to work together we can't just keep calling you the Hunter of the Dark."

"How about just Hunter?" suggested Naminé.

"Hunter...I like it. Just a warning though, I don't cook, clean or fetch things like coffee and-"

"I can assure you that you will not be given any menial tasks." DiZ went back to his computer screens "There are a large group of Nobodies gathering on a world close by. It's called the Elemental Nations. Go there and find out what they are planning and put a stop to it."

"Aye aye captain." Hunter ran towards the exit but stopped after a few steps. "Umm...how do I get to other worlds?"

"You use a corridor of darkness." answered Riku "Just focus on where you want to go."

Hunter nodded slowly. "Ok, focus...Elemental nations...focus." A black portal appeared around Hunter and he disappeared.

Then he reappeared to the left of where he had just been. Only this time he was upside down. "Ouch!" he cried as he crashed into the floor.

Riku shook his head "Maybe I should help with this" he held up his hand. Hunter heard a strange noise behind him. Turning round he saw a human sized black hole had appeared in the wall.

"Nice. So all I have to do is step through that and poof, I'm there?"

"Exactly. Before you go take this." DiZ handed him a small black mobile phone. It had no brand name, and only one button. "This phone is one of a pair" explained DiZ, holding up the other phone "it will allow you to communicate with me here without having to travel back and forth constantly between worlds."

"Got it. Catch you guys later!" Hunter leapt through the portal, which instantly closed behind him.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" asked Naminé.

"He's a Hunter of the Dark. He'll be fine." said Riku.

'Fine' is probably not the way to describe the Hunter's current situation though. When he walked out of the portal his first thought was 'What are these white fluffy things?'. It took him a moment to realize that they were clouds. Looking down he could see what looked like a medium size town, Riku had gotten the location right but not the altitude.

"Oh thanks a lot Rikuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The fall lasted for about ten minutes. Hunter eventually crashed through the roof of a building and all its floors until he finally ended up in the basement, lying atop a pile of debris.

"Mmmmm. Ok, not off to a good start here." He got up, dusted himself off and looked up at the hole he'd made in the building. "Hope no one asks me to pay for that. Now where's the exit." Off to the left of where Hunter was standing there was a staircase that lead to a door. Once he was out of the basement Hunter left the building, which looked to be a hotel of some kind. Several people ran past him, obviously going to investigate the commotion but none of them payed any attention to Hunter.

Now outside on the strangely empty street Hunter ran into a new problem, he couldn't read any of the signs on the buildings. "Oh, great. That's just...hmm." Hunter looked more closely at the sign on a store in front of him. At first the letters looked like random squiggles but the longer he stared at them the more they made sense. "Ichiraku's...Ramen...How am I...Is this a Heartless power?"

He didn't have much time to muse on his new ability. Several dangerous looking people, all armed with swords and wearing various animal masks suddenly appeared out of nowhere, surrounding him.

"Hold It right there!" commanded one who was wearing a tiger mask.

"Who are you, and how did you get into the village?" asked another who was wearing a cat mask.

"Ok, well...first up I'm not one hundred percent on 'who' I actually am. And I came from...erm..." he pointed up to roughly the same patch of sky where he'd appeared.

"Funny." said Tiger Mask. "Let's see how funny you are after the Torture and Interrogation Division are through with you."

Hunter couldn't help but smile at that 'Oh, I am going to have soooo much fun with these guys. Hehehehe.'


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two.

After being 'captured' by the masked ninja, Hunter was dragged off to a base hidden in the large mountain that overlooked the village. Once there he'd been chucked into a small bare cell with only a small table and two chairs. With nothing else to do Hunter sat down in the chair furthest from the door and waited. He could probably have tried to escape but he thought that if he played his cards right he might just get some information out of these people.

Twenty minutes later the cell door opened and a man walked in. He took the seat facing Hunter. He was dressed the same as the people who'd captured him, except he wore no animal mask.

"Ok, then." he said in a flat, even voice. "Let's start from the beginning. Who are you?"

Hunter gave him a broad smile and said "Hi, I'm Hunter. That's not my real name but it's all I've got right now."

The man's right eyebrow twitched slightly but other than that he showed no reaction. "What village are you from?"

"I don't know where I'm from. Sad but true."

"What is your purpose in the Hidden Leaf village?"

"Ah. So that's what this place is called. 'Hidden Leaf'. Weird name but it does have a ring to it." he noticed that the man was starting to grind his teeth. 'He's cracking.' thought Hunter

"Listen here kid!" he boomed "You obviously don't know just how much trouble you're-"

"Ouch! Indoor voice, man! Indoor voice. I'm not deaf over here."

The man was now very agitated and going red in the face.

Hunter smiled even wider 'He's cracked.'

"You are going to tell me what I want to know or-"

Before he could finish Hunter reached forward and placed a finger over his lips. "Shhh. Don't speak." he said in a exaggerated romantic tone "Your eyes say it all for me."

The interrogator finally lost it. He leapt up from his seat, reached down into one of his trousers many pockets and brought out a kunai. At the same time two more people burst into the room, Tiger Mask and another who wore a boar mask. The two quickly restrained their friend who rapidly calmed down.

"What do you think you're doing?!" demanded Tiger Mask, letting go of the interrogator. "You let this kid manipulate you with school yard level insults. Your dismissed Duzo."

Duzo looked ashamed and meekly nodded. He flashed Hunter a last angry look before leaving the room.

"Well, it's been real man, but I've got to go. I still have a job to do, unlike your friend."

Hunter got up and went for the door only for Boar and Tiger to bar his way. "You're not leaving until we get a straight answer out of you." said Boar in a gruff voice.

"Either get out of my way or I warn you , you'll suffer far worse than you can possible imagine." warned Hunter.

Both Tiger and Boar prepared to draw their swords. "Just try it." said Tiger.

Hunter gave them both the best evil smile he could muster.

_Half an hour later, still inside T&amp;I's base._

Anko Mitarashi wasn't a happy woman. As one of the Hidden Leafs top level special jōnin she liked it when her day went according to plan. Right now she should be monitoring the teams participating in the chunin exams, instead she was matching into the T&amp;I headquarters to interrogate some unlucky sap who was apparently too much for anyone else to handle.

Finally she reached the cell where her latest victim was held. An ANBU wearing a Tiger mask was waiting outside for her.

"He's in there I take it?" Anko asked.

Tiger nodded. "Yes M'am. He calls himself 'Hunter' but even he admits that's not his real name. So far he's avoided every question we asked. Or just given a non-sensical answer."

Anko sighed heavily "Still, did you have to send for ME specifically. There have to be other interrogators that can handle this?"

"Well...I think it would be best if you just listened to this."

Tiger opened the cell door just a little.

"AND A HEY HO, HE'S PLOUGHING A TROLL! THE GODS ONLY KNOW HOW THE KEY FITS THE-"

Tiger shut the door again, cutting off the rest of the 'song'. "He's been singing like that for the past half hour. He just won't shut up!"

Anko sighed again. This was going to be one of those days.

What the two ninja didn't know was that their 'prisoner' could hear every word of their conversation. Apparently enhanced hearing was yet another Heartless ability and while it had been difficult to control (he'd nearly been deafened by the sound of scuttling insects) Hunter could now hear people talking all over the building.

That was only the tip of the iceberg though. Hunter could also see everything that was going on in the building. People walking around going from point A to point B, interrogations being carried out and all the secret meetings that no one was supposed to know about. And inside every person he could see a Heart, filled with a mix of light and dark. A human mind would have overloaded and shut down with all this information but Heartless minds don't work in the same way.

The cell door opened and Anko walked in. She didn't say anything, she just slowly walked up to the table Hunter was sitting at then she slammed her fists down on the table in an effort to scare him. It didn't work he just sat there with the same contented smile on his face.

He hadn't even said anything to her yet and Anko already disliked him. "Think you're pretty smart don't you?" asked Anko rhetorically. "You probably think it's funny to play your little games?"

"Yes to all the above." answered Hunter. "Now why have you styled your hair after a pineapple?" he added.

Anko smirked at him. "Cute. Well guess what, you're-"

"Why are they afraid of you?" asked Hunter.

Anko was so surprised by the question she almost lost her train of thought. "What?"

"All the people you passed on your way here, they were afraid of you. Some even hated you."

Anko hadn't been expecting this 'How could he possibly know THAT!?' she wondered. Hunter's gaze wandered to her neck, the exact spot where her curse mark was. Anko instinctively placed her hand over the mark in an effort to cover it, despite the fact that her trench coat normally hid it from view.

"Does it have something to do with that mark on your-"

Anko quickly produced a kunai and slammed it point first into the table close to Hunter's hand.

"Touchy subject?" he asked.

"Just who are you?" Anko demanded, deciding to go for a more direct method of interrogation. "You're obviously a ninja from another village, what is your mission here? Espionage? Assassination? Out with it or-"

"Anko, I can say in all honestly. I am not a ninja. I do however have an important mission and I've wasted enough time here. So if you'll excuse me." Hunter stood up and took a few steps back from Anko.

"You're not leaving this room until you tell me everything." she spat out venomously.

Hunter gave her an 'oh really' smirk before closing his eyes and focusing. A black portal appeared right behind Hunter. He opened his eyes just in time to see the shocked look on Anko's face before saying "Catch you later!" then he jumped backwards through the portal. Anko tried to follow him through but the portal closed before she could reach it and she ended up slamming into the wall.

'Oh just great!' she thought ' A prisoner escape on my watch. I'm never going to live this down'.

"Tiger!" she yelled. The ANBU rushed into the room. "The prisoner has escaped! Round up every ninja you can and find him! He used some kind of teleportation jutsu to escape so that means he's at least jōnin rank, got that!?"

Tiger nodded then ran off to assemble his team. Anko wasn't far behind him, she was determined to find that little jerk first and drag him back here, dead or alive.

_On the other side of the village_.

Hunters latest attempt at using the corridors of darkness was more successful that the previous ones. He actually appeared where he wanted to this time, on the roof of the ' Ichiraku's Ramen' building. The only problem was that the portal was horizontal instead of vertical so Hunter ended up crashing face first into the roof.

"Oooff! Well...getting better." me muttered into the concrete. He picked himself up and walked over the ledge to get a better view of the street below. The place was utterly deserted. Hunter briefly wondered why until he saw a sign that (once translated) read 'Welcome all to the Chunin Exams!'

"Some kind of festival?" he wondered aloud. "That would be as good a place to start as any...hang on!"

Hunter noticed movement down on the street below. Two people, both women dressed in plain kimonos. There was nothing particularly interesting about them, except that neither of them had a heart.

"Nobodies." said Hunter quietly. He took a few steps back from the ledge. 'Let's see where they're going'.

Hunter kept to the rooftops as he followed the two 'women'. A couple of real people would pass by them every now and then but none of them noticed anything amiss, and why would they? What was strange about two women walking through town having a friendly chat? If anyone was interested enough to listen, they would have discovered that the two were repeating the same conversation over and over on a loop.

'Hiding in plain sight. Clever girls' Hunter thought. That was when he bumped into someone. He'd been so focused on the Nobodies he hadn't noticed that Anko had found him again.

"Oh, come on! Not now, I'm busy."

"Doing what?" asked Anko, threateningly drawing a kunai.

"Following those two-" Hunter pointed down at the street only to find that the two Nobodies had disappeared. "Snap!"

"Hey Anko." Both Anko and Hunter looked round in surprise and saw a man with spiky silver hair standing on a chimney overlooking the two of them. The man was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face and he wore a headband that was angled to cover up his left eye. He was also reading a book that was titled 'Icha Icah Paradise'.

"Kakashi." said Anko. "What are you doing here!?"

"I just wanted to see it for myself." Kakashi leapt down from his perch and landed between Anko and Hunter. "So this is the one who got away from you Anko. You must be slipping." he said jokingly.

"How did you find out already!?" asked Anko, barely controlling her anger.

"It's a small village, word travels fast."

Hunter decided to interrupt "Hi Kakashi, I'm Hunter. Nice to meet you, goodby- wait." Hunter raised both his hands and started looking left and right. "I sense...something..." he suddenly ducked down just in time to avoid a flying kick from another ninja.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" the ninja yelled. He landed right next to Kakashi. "I missed! That doesn't normally happen!"

Hunter got back up again "Who are you?"

The new ninja gave him a wide smile, showing off all his teeth. "Might Guy. The Hidden Leaf's Magnificent Green Beast!"

Hunter blinked a few times before saying "OK. Er, I'm Hunter." He looked at the three ninja's heads "I can't imagine your hair product bills. Kakashi, how much gel does it take for your hair to stand up like that?"

"Ha! This Kids got spirit." said Guy.

"He'll have a lot less when I'm done with him." growled Anko.

"Whoa, she's bit fierce isn't she?" said Hunter.

Both Guy and Kakashi winced at that, they both knew what would happen next.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" roared Anko. as she jumped at Hunter, trying to slashing him with her Kunai, but he managed to avoid her by side stepping.

"Ahh, cripes! Take it easy. AH!" Hunter ducked to avoid another slash. "Will you all please just STOP!"

Much to Hunters surprise that's just what everyone did. Anko paused mid swing while Guy and Kakashi stood where they were, not moving in the slightest.

"What the...?" then Hunter noticed the strange rings that had appeared around the ninja's waists. The rings were a translucent purple in colour and were surrounded by roman numerals from one to twelve. Hunter felt strange as well. Like he'd been drained somehow.

Hunter walked up to Anko. She seemed totally frozen. He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes a few times. Nothing. He tried the same thing with Guy and Kakashi with the same result, not so much as a twitch.

"I...froze them...in TIME!" he yelled. "How...what...ahh!...How do I un-freeze them!? Is this permanent? Oh, please don't let it be permanent!"

That was when the spell wore off and time resumed for the three ninjas. For them it was as though Hunter had just disappeared and reappeared.

'Huh? This kids fast!' thought Kakashi.

"Ha! The fires of youth burn strongly in this one!" said Guy.

Hunter gave him a confused look. "The fires of-whoa!" He ducked to avoid a kunai that Anko threw at him.

"Ok, let's try this again."

Anko saw Hunter's eyes suddenly turn glowing yellow. 'Is that...a kekkei genkai?!'

Hunter raised both his arms and yelled "STOP!" Once again everyone froze in place. "Hehehehe. I am going to have soooo much fun with this-whoa..." Hunter suddenly felt the draining feeling again. Only it was much stronger this time. "Ok, so this has a down side. I'd better use this sparingly."

Hunter quickly had a rummage through the three ninjas pockets. Apart from various weapons he didn't find anything interesting, except a pen which he used to apply some 'artwork' to their faces. He also took Kakashi's book, tore out the first page and lodged it between two of the man's hair spikes.

"Well, my work here is done." said Hunter as he proudly admired his handiwork. "That spell should wear off any second now. Time to book out." Hunter jumped off the roof and landed on the street below before running off to the left.

The stop spell on the three ninja wore off seconds later.

"Where did he go this...what the!?" The first thing that Anko noticed was that once again Hunter had vanished, the second thing was that Guy now had a large walrus moustache drawn on his face. He was also giving her a strange look.

"He's drawn something on me to hasn't he?" she asked. Guy nodded. Anko had been given a small moustache and a little goatee beard.

"AAAARRRGGHHH!" Anko and Guy looked over at Kakashi. "My book!" he yelled. "He's taken my book!"

"Ermm, Kakashi." Kakashi looked over at Guy who pointed at his head. Reaching up Kakashi found the piece of paper that Hunter had placed in his hair.

"He...he ripped out the first page! He defiled MY BOOK!"

"How did he do all this?" wondered Anko aloud "There's no way he could have moved that fast."

"Maybe he used some kind of paralysis jutsu?" suggested Guy.

"A jutsu powerful enough to work on all three of us. I was right, this kid is defiantly jōnin rank, at the very least. And then there's those eyes..."

"I don't care how powerful his jutsu are. He has my book!" yelled Kakashi, who was still hysterical. "And I'm going to turn this whole village upside down until I find him!"

_Back with Hunter. Elsewhere in the village._

Once he'd gotten away from the ninjas Hunter had tried to find the Nobodies again but they were nowhere to be found. After his search had failed he'd decided to go to plan B : gather information. He was currently hiding in an alleyway across from a grand, important looking building called 'Hokage Tower' which he hoped might have some useful information stored inside. The problem was that the place was heavily guarded. Two men stationed at the doors and a whole lot of ninjas hiding all over, the only reason that Hunter knew they were there was because of his Heartless vision.

'Now is probably a good time to ask for help' he thought. Reaching into his trouser pocket he brought out the small phone that DiZ had given to him. He pressed it's one and only button and raised it to his ear.

Moments later DiZ's voice crackled out from the speakers "Hunter."

"Hey DiZ. Listen...I'm in a bit of a jam here. There's this building that I need to break into but it's swarming with guards so I was wondering if...maybe...Riku could swing by and clear them out?"

"Riku has more important things to do right now. You are perfectly capable of dealing with this on your own."

"You're joking right!? I can't take these guys, I don't know how to fight!" Hunter yelled into the phone.

"Heartless are made to fight, just let your instincts guide you. If you want to take a more stealthy approach then you can alter your appearance as well."

"How?"

Hunter heard DiZ sigh on the other end of the line "Just focus on what you want to look like then use the Power of Darkness."

"Ok, now how do I use the Power of...DiZ?...DiZ? Hello!? He hung up on me!" Hunter put the phone away and started to focus on changing his shape. He conjured up a mental image of the tiger masked ninja from earlier then tried to imagine himself as that ninja. Anyone watching him right now would have seen his form fade to a black silhouette, then change and re-from into an ANBU ninja wearing a tiger mask.

Hunter opened his eyes and found, much to his surprise, that he'd successfully transformed. "Awesome!" he said to no one in particular. With his new disguise Hunter found getting into the tower very easy, the two guards at the door let him in with no questions and once inside no one challenged him.

One ninja noticed him and said "Tiger! How's the search coming?"

Hunter said nothing because that would have given him away instantly, instead he just kept walking. His super hearing picked up someone behind him saying "What's up with him? Not so much as a 'hello'."

"ANBU. Think their better than everybody else."

'Awkward' thought Hunter as he headed for a flight of stairs.

Hunter explored the new building floor by floor looking for anything that might help on his mission. Finally he found a room on the top floor marks as 'Hokage's Office'. Seeing as how the building was called 'Hokage Tower' Hunter guessed that this room belonged to whoever was in charge, so there must be something he could use in there.

He carefully opened the door and peeked inside. Seeing no one he entered the room and close the door behind him, dropping his disguise and returning to his normal appearance. It was a large office with a single window in the back wall, a long desk with a tone of paperwork piled up on one side and a crystal ball on the other.

There was a strange shimmering light coming from the ball, which probably meant it was somehow magical. Hunter ignored the desk and went for a row of filing cabinets on the left wall.

"Ok, let's see...Nobodies...N...N...Here we go, M to P...Nothing on Nobodies. Drat." Hunter closed that cabinet and thought back to what he'd seen in the village.

"Chunin Exams...C...C...A to C!...Aha!" There was a whole bunch of files in a section marked 'Chunin'. Hunter started pulling them out one by one.

"Let's see...List of Chunin. No. Chunin Missions. No. Sorry can you hold these, thanks." Hunter passed the two files to the old man who was standing next to him. "Chunin Exams, sco- um..."

Hunter slowly turned round. Standing just to his left, holding the two files he'd just handed him was an old man, definitely in his seventies. He wore red and white robes and a large diamond shaped hat, despite his age Hunter could sense that he was a powerful opponent. He wasn't alone either, two of the masked ninjas were with him, one wore an eagle mask, the other a cat mask.

"Hi, um...I guess you're this 'Hokage' person right?"

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, nodded slightly "You would be correct. I assume that you are 'Hunter'. I've heard much about you."

"I deny everything."

At that moment there was a poof of smoke on the other side of the room and Anko appeared. "Lord Hokage, there's been no sign of- YOU!"

Hunter looked from Anko to the Hokage, then back again. "Hi honey. What's for dinner?"

"You...YOU. Lord Hokage, this man is a dangerous criminal. He has powerful jutsu and an unknown kekkei genkai!"

"Kec-what? Are you making these words up?" asked Hunter.

Sarutobi looked at the moustache and beard drawn on Anko's face. "I take it that the moustache is your doing?"

Hunter shrugged "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now-OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT!" Hunter pointed over at the other side of the room.

No one turned round.

"Ah, I was rather hoping you'd fall for that. Oh well" Hunter jumped over the Hokage and his guards and bolted out the door. Anko was right behind him, followed by the two ANBU ninja and the Hokage. Hunter ran up a flight of stairs, looking up he could see through the ceiling that Kakashi and Guy waiting just beyond the roof access door. Quickly he shape shifted so that he now looked just like Anko.

The transformation finished just a second before he burst out the door and onto the roof. Kakashi and Guy looked round and saw their comrade running at full speed towards them.

"Anko, what's..?" began Guy.

"Can't stop! Excuse me!" yelled Hunter.

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly "That voice! IT'S YOU!"

Hunter changed back into his normal form still running straight for the roofs ledge. The group of ninjas were only a few steps behind him as the jumped down off the roof. As his pursuers reached the ledge they were in for a surprise. Hunter was crouching on the side of the building, facing them with his palms outstretched

"STOP!"

From the ninjas perspective it was as though Hunter just vanished but Anko, Guy and Kakashi knew the truth. He paralysed them all AGAIN.

"Up here lads and ladies!" they all looked up and saw Hunter was now on the roof of the building opposite, twirling a pen in his left hand. "Hope you all like your new looks. Definite improvement!"

Anko looked at the other ninjas. Both the ANBU guards now had moustaches drawn over their masks while Sarutobi had a pair of drawn on spectacles.

"Oh, and Kakashi, catch!"

Hunter threw a paper aeroplane at Kakashi. The sliver haired ninja caught it and opened it up. "ARRHGG! This is the SECOND page of my book! You ripped out another page!"

"Hahahahah! I know what your all thinking! 'Does he have it all planned out? Or is he just making it up as he goes along! Ha!"

Anko clenched her fists, trying to keep her temper in check. "Just who are you!" she yelled.

"My friends call me Murphy. You call me Robocop!" He smiled at their confused looks. Hunter lifted up the file he'd stolen and waved it at them. "Thanks for the gift by the way. This 'Forest of Death' place sounds like fun!"

Anko's expression changed from anger to afraid 'The Forest of Death? He's going after the genin teams!'

Hunter tossed the file away "Hahaha. Oh life is going to be a wow wow weeeee!" A dark portal started appearing around him. "For my shadow AND MEEEEEEEEE!" Before anyone could get to him he was gone.

_Elsewhere in the Village. Danzō Shimura's private office._

Danzō let out a long sigh as he signed off yet more paper work. As an elder of the village and a candidate to be the next Hokage he had to wade through a seemingly never ending sea of red tape and burocracy. The thing that kept him going through all this boredom was his determination (some would say obsession) to protect the Hidden Leaf Village, even if that meant sifting through all this paperwork and doing other, less pleasant things.

"Hey there." Danzō looked up and saw a man standing in front of his desk . He had dark, grey streaked hair, a scared face and a patch over one eye. He wore strange black cloak. "My you are a busy little bee Danzō." he continued.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my office?" he demanded in an authoritative voice.

"Name's Xgibar. I'm here to...retrieve something. Something that your little secret organisation found in a crater, and brought back to you. Ringing any bells"

Danzō's uncovered eye widened. This man knew about the 'artefact' and about his ROOT organisation.

Xigbar saw his reaction and smiled "Oh yeah. We know all about you. We've been watching for some time." he looked at the bandages that covered most of his body. "You always claim that everything you do is for your village. Are you sure that it's not just to surpass that old coot Sarutobi?"

"Guards!" commanded Danzō. He was shocked when no ANBU ninjas appeared.

Xigbar laughed. "Oh we've already 'dealt' with your guards. They put up quite a poor fight actually. Didn't they, Thorn?"

It took Danzō a second to realise that he was addressing someone else. Before he could move he felt an immense pain in his chest. Looking down he could see two jagged lines, one black, one white, protruding from his chest. Danzō couldn't move his head but he knew that his attacker must be behind him.

Xigbar moved round the desk so that he was now standing next to Danzō. He carefully opened up the top right had draw of the desk and took out the artefact that ROOT had discovered, a small white box covered in black lines that occasionally glowed with a strange light.

"There's a homing beacon inside this." said Xigbar "That's how we found it, and this world. I supose I should thank you for bringing us here. There is a lot of potential for the Organisation. That boy, what's his name...Naruto. Now he is very interesting. You know, he kinda reminds me of someone I used to know."

Danzō snarled at him but apart from that he couldn't do anything. Xigbar just laughed "Sorry got a little carried away there. Thorn. Finish him."

'Danzō' vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log. The a kunai aimed at Thorn passed right through the Nobody's head.

The real Danzō was not standing at the door to his office and after his failed counter attack he made a run for it. He needed time to open the seals on his right arm and right now time was something he didn't have. He was almost at the end of the corridor when a black portal appeared, barring his path. From it emerged Thorn, as cold looking as ever.

Danzō lashed out with a kick aimed at Thorn's head which passed harmlessly through him.

"Fira." several fireballs formed around Thorn and launched themselves point black at Danzō He avoided the first two, just but the third struck home, blasting the old man back. Now wounded and with some very severe burns Danzō was not in a good position. Thorn was closing in for the kill, charging up a thunder spell.

There was a slight 'thunk' as a kunai embedded itself in the wood floor at Thorn's feet. he looked down just in time to see the explosive tag before it detonated with a loud BOOM!

Five masked ROOT ninjas appeared next to Danzō, once carefully helping their leader to his feet while the rest kept thier eyes on the flames and smoke where Thorn use to be.

"Lord Danzō." began one of the ROOT ninjas "We need to get you t-ah!" A lance of bright red light pierced the man's chest and het fell to the ground, dead.

"Oh, sorry. Did you forget about little ole' me?" taunted Xigbar, who was standing in to doorway to Danzō's office holding a strange gun like weapon in each hand.

That was when Thorn came out of hiding, walking calmly out of the fire raging at the other end of the corridor. One of the ROOT ninjas ran at him, drawing a katana from his back. With a casual flick of his wrist Thorn launched out another line that sliced right through the man before he even got close.

"Pull back." ordered Danzō. He and his operatives vanished in separate puffs of smoke.

Thorn was about to give chase when Xigbar held up a hand from him to stop. "Nah, leave 'em. We got what we came for and they won't be any trouble." He looked down at the cube he now held in his hands. Pressing a hidden button a small hologram appeared out of the box. It showed designs for a new ship, a massive, square ship.

"The designs for the Dreadnaught." said Xigbar, almost absent mindedly. "Thought we'd lost these to that Heartless attack. Instead it ends up leading us here. Funny."

He turned his attention back to Thorn. "You know what you have to do here."

Thorn nodded "For. Organisation. Thirteen."

Xigbar rolled his eye "Yeah, sure. Whatever." then he disappeared into a black portal.

The flames behind Thorn were spreading fast and it wouldn't be long before people started to investigate. Ignoring the fire he went back into Danzō's office. After a short search Thorn found something of value, a file on a certain young genin that Thorn was now very interested in.

By now the fire had made it into Danzō's room, flames had crawled up the walls, spread across the floor and rolled over the ceiling. Thorn just stood in the inferno seemingly ignorant of it. He looked over at a mirror hanging on the wall. He saw himself in his human disguise. He had pale skin, jet black spiky hair, a light blue scarf wrapped round his neck and black cloths with the white symbol of the Nobodies emblazoned on his shirt.

The mirror shattered from the heat, shards of glass flying all over the room. Thorn summoned his own black portal and disappeared, leaving the building to burn.

Outside Danzō was furious. Begin attack in his own office was not something he would tolerate. Inwardly he cursed himself for not destroying that blasted cube when he had the chance. If he'd had know it would bring those two here...

"Spread word of this to the rest of our operatives!" ordered Danzō the remaining Root ninjas all nodded quietly and body-flickered away save one who stayed by his side.

"Lord Danzō? We need to get you to a medic nin, your wounds are-"

"I know!" Danzō snapped at him "I may have lost today but I am not done fighting. And I will remember who my enemies are!" with that Danzō turned away from his burning office and started walking in the general direction of one of his secret ROOT bases. Once he was healed he swore there was going to be a reckoning.


	3. Chapter 3

And here's the next chapter in which Hunter makes some new friends and a lot of new enemies.

Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 3

Somewhere inside the forty fourth training ground, also known as the Forest of Death, a black portal appeared on the branch of a massive tree. After a moment's pause Hunter stepped out.

"Yes!" he yelled "I've finally got this teleporting thing down...wait...why is the ground up there?" Hunter looked down and saw the forest canopy and, through the leaves, patches of blue sky. He was upside down.

"Ah, snap." Hunter walked round the branch so he was now the right way up. Looking from left to right the only thing he could see was trees, trees and more trees. "Great, now where do I go? I knew I should have kept that file."

With no obvious way to go Hunter decided to just run off in one direction and hope he was going the right way. With his Heartless strength and agility jumping from branch to branch was easy. Soon enough Hunter came across a group of three people by a river. Considering that everyone he'd met so far had been less than friendly Hunter stayed up in the tree tops to observe them from a distance.

There was a boy who looked like a miniature version of Might Guy, right down to the large eye brows exercising away from the other two. The only girl in the trio was down by the river filling up a flask of water. She had brown hair that she wore in two buns on either side of her head. She was wearing a pink sleeveless blouse and dark green pants.

The other boy in the team had long brown hair that came all the way down to the middle of his back. He was wearing a khaki shirt with dark brown shorts and he had strange eyes that were plain white, almost pupil-less. Hunter could see dark shadows in this guys heart. He wasn't evil but he wasn't the friendly type.

'None of them have seen me yet' thought Hunter 'As long as I stay up here then-' one of the branches he was holding on to creaked. 'Oh. Snap!'

The branch broke and Hunter fell out of the tree and crashed into the ground. Looking up from the ground he saw the three young ninjas were all now looking at him and they were all in combat stances.

"Err. Hi." said Hunter as he picked himself up. "Well, this is awkward."

"Hand over your scroll!" demanded the one with the white eyes.

"My what?"

"You heard him." said the girl "Hand over your scroll, and we won't have to beat the snot out of you."

"I don't have a scroll."

"I think he's telling the truth Neji." said the miniature Might Guy.

"If he's here for the Chunin exams then he will have a scroll Lee." replied Neji.

"Wow, he's a barrel of laughs isn't he. How do you two put up with him?" asked Hunter.

Without warning Neji charged at him. Hunter jumped out of the way, barely avoiding an open palmed strike.

Hunter saw the girl draw a kunai and Lee preparing to attack as well.

"Tenten, Lee, stay back! ordered Neji. "This guy might not be alone, be ready if more show up!"

Neji aimed five more strikes at Hunter but he managed to dodge every one. 'This guy's fast' thought Neji 'I may have to use the byakugan'.

Hunter dodged another blow 'This is bad' he thought 'I can't take all...three...' Hunter moved aside, avoiding yet another strike. Then he grabbed hold of Neji's arm. "Blizzard." The air around Neji and Hunter suddenly became very cold. Neji looked down at his arm and saw ice begin to spread from where Hunter was touching him. He tried to pull his arm away but he couldn't shake Hunter's grip.

Suddenly Hunter let go. Neji clutched at his frozen arm, unable to move it.

Hunter seemed more surprised than Neji, 'Did I just do that?' he thought. It was like he'd know exactly what to do. Sensing movement behind him Hunter raised his left arm and blocked a side swipe from Lee. Lee then aimed a kick at Hunters exposed side but Hunter blocked it with his leg. He spun round and punched Lee in the gut, sending him flying backwards.

Hunter couldn't believe what he was doing. It was like everything was moving in slow motion. He could sense what his opponents were doing. 'I can fight?'. He jumped up into the air to avoid a sweeping kick from Neji then he did a spinning kick mid air to knock aside a kunai Tenten threw at him.

"I can fight!" he proclaimed.

Lee got back up and ran straight for Hunter. Once he was close enough he did a round house kick but Hunter dropped down under it. He then landed his own kick on Lee's back, launching him in Neji's direction. Tenten threw two more kunai at Hunter but he batted them both aside.

While his back was turned Neji launched another attack but Hunter easily dodged it and delivered a side chop to Neji's frozen arm, shattering the ice and breaking the bone. Neji grunted in pain. Before he had time to recover Hunter performed a sweeping kick that took Neji's legs out from under him, then he punched down, slamming Neji into the ground.

"Neji!" yelled Tenten. 'I guess I have no choice.' She reached round behind her a brought out her two weapon scrolls 'I didn't think I'd have to use this move until the finals.' Placing the two scrolls on the ground, one on either side of her, Tenten rapidly made several hand signs.

"Rising twin Dragons!" The two scrolls went spinning into the air, unravelling as they went. Tenten jumped up between the two scrolls and began releasing and throwing the various weapons that had been sealed in the paper.

Hunter's looked at the incoming barrage and somehow knew exactly what to do. "Aero!" he was suddenly surrounded by a barrier of wind that deflected every last weapon thrown.

"I'm not done yet!" yelled Tenten. She pulled on the hidden wires that connected her finger tips to the discarded weapons and directed them back at Hunter.

"Oh no you don't!" Hunter flung out his arms causing the aero spell to expand in a massive gust of wind. Once again the weapons were flung aside and Tenten was blown backwards into a tree.

Hunter looked round at the three genin. Tenten was winded, out of energy and had run out of weapons. Lee was picking himself back up but he was in no shape to carry on fighting. Neji was trying to get back up but he was in worse shape than Lee.

With a great deal of joy, Hunter realised that he'd won. "WAHOO! YES, yes! Oh, everybody was kung fu fighting...those kids were fast as lightning...yeah!"

"No..." Hunter looked over at Neji, who was slowly, painfully standing back up. "I...will not ...be beaten...by a loser like you!"

"Hate to beak it to ya man but you've lost. I just took down you and your team and I'm not even warmed up yet."

"Leaf Hurricane!" Hunter raised his arm just in time to block a kick from Lee. Apparently he still had some fight left in him after all.

Lee jumped back before Hunter could counter attack. "Neji, Tenten! If we all attack at the same time then we might still have a chance!"

"You three want it? Come and get it!" taunted Hunter.

Tenten got back up and ran towards Hunter, picking up a discarded kunai as she went. Neji started running to, pulling back his remaining arm to deliver an open palmed strike while Lee went around Hunter to attack from the rear.

"That's your last mistake! Blizzard!" Hunter spun round on the spot sending three blasts of ice at the genin. Hunter had waited until the last second so they would have no time to dodge. Each bolt of ice struck home and Tenten, Lee and Neji were all frozen in place.

"C-c-c-can't...move." stammered Lee.

"Well this has been fun guys but I've got to get going. Don't worry about the ice, you'll thaw out eventually." Hunter jumped up onto a tree branch and began leaping through the forest again "Remember!" he yelled back at the genin "Think warm thoughts!"

Hunter still had no idea where he was going. All the trees looked the same to him and for all he knew he was just going in circles. He'd seen several other ninja teams in the woods but he'd decided to avoid them for now.

"Still no sign of any nobodies." he muttered to himself. "Maybe I should head back to the village...wait. What the heck?"

Hunter had come across a large clearing where a girl with pink hair was facing off against three other ninjas, one woman, one guy whose face was mostly covered in bandages and another man with black spiky hair. She was protecting two others, both boys that were unconscious and lying beneath the roots of a huge tree.

Looking down Hunter could see three other people hiding in the bushes watching the fight, a blond haired girl, and two boys, one fat and one with black hair in style that looked like a pineapple. Hunter silently dropped down from the trees and snuck up behind them.

"Sasuke and Naruto are out of it." said the ninja with the pineapple hairstyle. "It's just Sakura alone against the three of those guys. Well, what do you want to do, Ino?" he looked over at the blond.

"Why ask me huh?" asked the blond, who apparently was named Ino.

"Well if we don't do something soon she's toast. Are you cool with that?"

"What do you want me to do Shikamaru? Go out there and get myself killed?"

Hunter ignored the two bickering genin and focused on what was happening in the clearing.

Sakura threw several shuriken at the guy with the bandages but his team mate, the one with the spiky hair got in the way and deflected the attack with a blast of air. While Sakura was distracted the woman had snuck up behind her and grabbed her by her hair, forcing Sakura to her knees.

"My, what soft and shiny hair" she said in a mocking voice. "but you know what? If you spent a little less time shampooing and a little more time practicing your jutsu you might not be in this fix." while she was talking she gave Sakura's head a few cruel shakes. "Hey Zaku, I know what would be fun. Let's make miss beauty queen here watch as you finish of that Sasuke guy."

"Why not, sounds like fun to me." replied the man with spiky hair.

'Ok, that tears it!' thought Hunter. 'I'm not just going to sit here on the side lines and let them get away with this! I survived a fall from three miles up, I can take whatever the three stooges out there have!'

"Well if you three aren't going to do anything" the three genin hiding in the bushes almost jumped out of their skin at the sound of Hunters voice "I guess that leaves all the heroics to me!"

Hunter jumped out into the clearing and yelled "Hey, morons!"

The three Sound ninja and Sakura all looked over at Hunter.

"Real tough guys aren't you" he continued "picking on a little girl, all alone in the woods. And as for you lady! Your hardy one to talk about other people's hair. I can smell your coconut cream shampoo all the way from over here!"

The guy with the bandages looked down at Sakura "Friend of yours, little girl?"

"She's not my friend." said Hunter "At least not yet anyway. We've only just met. Hey there."

'Who is this guy?' Sakura thought 'And what is he thinking taking on these three alone?'

"Why stick your neck out for someone you don't even know?" asked Dosu.

"Well what kind of person would I be if I just sat on the sidelines and watched you three beat the crap out of her?" Hunter said the last part a little louder and directed it at the bushes behind him.

"Hey guys, I think we've got a hero here?" said Kin.

Zaku smirked at that "Well then 'hero', eat this! Slicing sound wave!"

Zaku aimed his arms at Hunter and fired a blast of compressed air at the speed of sound. Hunter didn't move and just let the attack hit him. Zaku turned round, not bothering to see if his air attack actually worked.

"Now that he's out of the way-"

"Don't count your chickens!"

Zeku spun round and found himself face to face with Hunter.

'No way!' he thought 'How did he survive that!'

Hunter grabbed hold of Zaku's shoulder "Falcon!" he pulled his arm back "Punch!" then he hit Zaku square in the chest. The man went flying backwards and crashed into a giant tree root.

'This is PERFECT!' thought Hunter 'I barely even felt that attack! Oh, I am on such a power trip right now!'

"You...who are you?" demanded Dosu.

"I'm the Indestructible Captain Scarlet!" proclaimed Hunter, punching the air "And you guys are toast! Blizzard!"

Hunter jammed his arms forward and fired off two ice blasts at Kin and Dosu. They both dodged the attack, although Kin had to let go of Sakura. The two sound ninja regrouped next to Zaku, who was just getting back up.

"Hey, pinky." Sakura looked up at Hunter "Go check on your friends. I'll deal with Huey, Dewey, and Louie here." Sakura nodded. She still wasn't sure what this guy was planning but right now he was protecting her and her friends. That was all that mattered. She got up and ran over to the tree where her team mates were still lying unconscious.

"This guys going to take on all three of them by himself?" asked Ino.

"Hey, better him than me. I mean us!" replied Choji.

Hunter examined his three opponents. 'These guy have some serious darkness inside. They won't hesitate to kill me if they get the chance.' He took a closer look at the one called Zaku. 'He has tubes implanted in his arms. That's how he can fire of that air blast attack. I wonder what happens if those tubes get blocked?'

"Alright, let's try this again." Zaku raised his arms and aimed at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!"

Hunter jumped over the air blast "Missed!"

"Not quite" said Dosu, raising his right arm. Hunter saw a metal device with a bunch of holes in it attached to Dosu's forearm. Then he heard a loud, constant ringing sound.

'A sound attack!' thought Hunter 'If I were human that would really mess with my head. Good thing I'm not human!' Hunter dropped out of the air, aiming a punch at Dosu. The sound Ninja moved out of the way just in time. Hunters punch shattered the ground where he'd just been standing.

'That sound wave should have disoriented him. Why didn't it work?' thought Dosu.

"Nice try mummy man." said Hunter "But if you think that sound attack will work on me you're in de-Nile. Ha!"

"I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS GUY!" yelled Zaku. Once again he aimed his arms at Hunter "Slicing sound wave!" He fired another powerful blast of air at sonic speeds straight at Hunter. He just stood there and let the wave of sound and compressed air wash over him.

Everyone stared at him wide eyed.

"T-that's impossible!" stammered Zaku.

"Ha, told you I was indestructible!" Taunted Hunter. "Brave you may be, you think that your might is tough. Come have a go if you think you're hard enough!" he added in a sing song voice.

"Yeah, you may be 'indestructible'" snarled Zaku "But they're not!" This time he aimed his arms at Sakura and her team mates "Slicing-"

While Zaku was distracting Hunter, Kin had readied some of her senbon needles to attack the kid with. That was when she saw his eyes change to a bright yellow. "What the...Zaku watch out!" she yelled.

Too late. Hunter flung out his right arm and a large three pronged hook attached to a long chain appeared out of nowhere. It flew straight at Zaku and wrapped itself multiple times around his arms.

"What? What is this, I can't break free!?" said Zaku, panic mounting in his voice.

"Hey Zaku!" The sound ninja looked over at Hunter and saw him smirking. "GET OVER HERE!" Hunter pulled on the chain connecting him to Zaku's arms, lifting the ninja off his feet and sending him flying towards Hunter. Once he was close enough Hunter punched down, smashing Zaku into the ground.

That was when Kin threw her needles at Hunter. He swung his left arm and another chain and hook appeared, deflecting the needles away. The hook then fell to the ground with a dull metallic thud.

Hunter looked at the chains that ran from the large hooks and then disappeared up into his sleeves. "Hooks with chains huh. I was hoping for swords or death rays but this'll do." The chain and hook around Zaku's arms unwrapped itself and Hunter pulled it back to him.

'Those chains look heavy' thought Dosu 'There's no way he can move effectively with them dragging him down'

Hunter charged full speed at Dosu, before anyone could blink he was slamming his nee into the man's stomach. The hooks dragged along behind Hunter, ripping out great chunks of dirt but he wasn't slowed down in the slightest.

"Those chains aren't even slowing him down!" said Shikamaru. As he watched he saw Hunter swing one of the chains round aiming for Kin. She dodge the attack but then the chain changed direction and wrapped itself round her leg. He sent his other chain at Dosu, which coiled around the man's waist. Hunter jumped high into the air, dragging Dosu and Kin with him.

"Swing your partners round and round!" Hunter dived back towards the ground still pulling the two sound ninja with him. "And smash their heads into the ground!" Hunter landed gracefully on the ground while Kin and Dosu were brought smashing down. Kin was knocked unconscious, Dosu just broke a few ribs.

"Take my advice mummy man and stay...ut oh." Hunter looked over at where Sakura and her team mates were. One of them had gotten back up but Hunter could see something was deeply wrong. The kid had strange black marks that were spreading across his body and a dark purple energy was swirling around him.

Hunters vision zoomed in on the kids shoulder. 'He's got the same mark as that Anko lady. That thing is real bad juju.'

"Sakura." said the boy. His voice was perfectly calm but there was a threatening undertone. "Sakura, who did this to you?"

Sakura looked terrified. This wasn't the Sasuke she knew. "Sasuke. What happened to you?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"Don't worry. I'm all right. In fact I've never felt better. He gave me this gift, and he made me understand what I am. I'm an avenger. To follow my path I must have power at any price. Even if it means being consumed by evil."

'That doesn't sound good' thought Hunter.

"Sakura, which one of these people did this to you?" Sasuke asked again.

"Ha! That would be me!" Hunter looked to his left and saw Zaku getting back up.

"You really should have kept quiet man." said Hunter.

Zaku aimed his arms at Sasuke "I'll take care of the whole bunch of them in one fell swoop! Super Sonic -"

Zaku never got the chance to finish. In the blink of an eye Sasuke was behind him. He Grabbed hold of Zaku's arms and force him down into a kneeling position, placing his foot on Zaku's back.

"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours." Sasuke smirked as he started to pull. "You must be very 'attached' to them!"

"Hey, that's enough!" yelled Hunter. He quickly sped over towards Sasuke and Zaku. He flung one hook at Sasuke, forcing him to let go of Zaku and jump back to avoid it. Then he slammed the other hook into the back of Zaku's head, knocking him out.

"And just who are you?" demanded Sasuke

"I'm the guy who protected your girlfriend while you were taking a nap. Now calm down before you do something you'll regret!"

Sasuke tensed up, ready to attack.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Sakura screamed "STOP!" she ran up to Sasuke and flung her arms round him. "Stop, please." she begged in between sobs.

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the black marks on Sasuke's body receded and he dropped to the ground, panting heavily.

"Glad that's over." muttered Hunter as his chains both faded away.

"Sasuke!" Hunter turned round and saw Dosu standing close by. "And you, whatever your name is. Your both too strong. We can't hope to defeat either of you." he placed a small scroll on the ground before Hunter. "We'll strike a deal. I give you this scroll and you let us go."

Hunter was utterly confused. What the heck did he want with a scroll? Then he remembered that kid from earlier, Neji, talking about a scroll. Something to do with the chunin exams.

Cautiously he picked up the scroll "Thanks for the reading material. Now shoo!"

Dosu picked up Zaku's body, then he went over to retrieve Kin. "For the moment we're even." he said "But if any of us should ever meat in combat again-"

"Oh, take a hike will ya. I've heard enough tough guy speeches today."

Dosu walked away, carrying his teammates with him. Once he was gone the other genin team hiding in the bushes came out into the clearing.

Sakura seemed surprised to see them "Shikamaru? Choji?...Ino?"

"Hey, what about me?" asked Hunter "Don't I get a mention. I only saved your life from...whatever those guys were."

"Oh, right. Thanks. Who are you anyway?" asked Sakura.

Hunter gave her a weak smile "I'm still working on that. Call me Hunter."

"Hunter huh?" said Shikamaru in a tired, almost board sounding voice "What are you hunting?"

"The Nobodies."

That earned a confused look from everyone.

"Well it's been fun guys, but I've got...to...hello. What have we here." Hunter's gaze wandered over to the final member of Sakura's team. A small blond haired boy dressed in orange cloths. Outwardly there was nothing weird about him (apart from the whisker like marks on his cheeks), inside though, Hunter could see two hearts in him. One was a normal heart but the other clearly belonged to something much more powerful and, from the amount of darkness in it, it wasn't something nice.

"What's he looking at?" asked Choji.

Hunter reached towards the sleeping boy's chest. The assembled genin got the shock of their lives as Hunters hand passed right through the boy's body. "Oh snap! I wasn't trying to do-huh?"

Hunter noticed that his surroundings had changed. He wasn't in the forest anymore he was in what looked like a...well the best way to describe it is a big, dark concrete room filled with ankle deep water. Looking around Hunter saw that the genin had all disappeared. The only other person here was the blond boy, who was lying down a few feet in front of him.

'Wasn't I right next to him?" thought Hunter as he approached the boy. "Hello?...blondie..." Nothing. "WAKE UP!" the boy jumped awake.

"What the..where...who are you?"

"Hey, I'm Hunter who are you?"

"Erm..I'm Naruto. Hey, do you know where we are?"

Hunter looked around a bit more. "Yeah. I think this is inside you."

"What!?" yelled Naruto "Wait, if this is inside **me** how come how come **you're** here?"

"Beats me. All I did was reach out and poof. What's in the cage?"

Naruto looked confused "What cage?"

Hunter placed his hand on top of Naruto's head and turned him to the left. On the other side of the room was a gigantic cage door beyond which was an impenetrable darkness. "Oh that? I have no idea."

"Well, if it's a cage that means there's something in it. HEY! If anyone's in there speak up or forever hold your peace!"

A pair of massive read eyes opened on the other side of the cage, along with a huge mouth full of teeth.

Naruto instinctively backed away "T-t-that's the...Nine tailed Fox!"

"The what?" asked Hunter.

**"WHO ARE YOU?" **boomed the Fox in a menacing voice.

"I'm Hunter, this is Naruto and you are...really, really big."

**"DO YOU HAVE ANY LAST REQUESTS BEFORE I FEAST UPON YOUR MARROW?"**

"Aren't you stuck in that cage?" Hunter pointed out.

There was a loud clang as the Fox slammed it's claws against the cage door and let out a menacing growl.

"Ok, so you're big and scary. Well guess what I'm scarier!" Hunters eyes glowed a luminescent yellow. As Naruto was standing behind Hunter the only one who saw this was the Fox.

The demons eyes widened in shock **"YOU...YOURE A...BOY! LISTEN TO ME! THIS THING IS NOT WHAT IT APPEARS! DO NOT TRUST IT!"**

Naruto was stunned. The Nine tailed Demon Fox sounded almost...afraid.

'Snap' thought Hunter 'This thing knows'. "And that's my queue to vamoose. See you on the other side Naruto!"

**"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE YOU HEAR ME!" **bellowed the Fox as Naruto's mindscape faded away **"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRRRRRRR-!"**

"Well that was weird" said Hunter. He was now back in the real world, surrounded by the Hidden Leaf genin. With a groan Naruto woke up as well.

"Huh...Sakura...Sasuke...? " then he saw Hunter "You! It was all real?"

"Apparently." remarked Hunter.

"Wait! What was 'all real'? What just happened between you and Naruto?" demanded Ino.

"Yeah, it was like your hand passed right through him!" added Choji, while opening a bag of potato chips.

"Sorry folks but there are some things you don't need to know." Hunter turned to leave "Oh, almost forgot." he chucked the scroll he was still holding to Naruto. "You guys need this more than I do."

"Hey! Thanks!" said Naruto.

"Wait! If you give us your scroll how will you finish the chunin exams?" asked Sakura.

"I'm not in the exam." answered Hunter he jumped up onto a nearby tree branch and looked back down at the group "By the way" he lifted up the 'Icha Icha Paradise' book "if any of you run into a guy called Kakashi tell him I still have his book and I'm going to keep sending it back to him piece by piece!"

"What? How did he get Kakashi-sensi's book!?" asked Naruto.

Hunter turned around and jumped off into the forest.

"That...was weird." said Ino.

"It was something." agreed Shikamaru.

Naruto was the most confused out of all of the genin. He couldn't shake what the Fox and told him. "**DO NOT TRUST IT!...I KNOW WHAT YOU ARRRRRR-!"**

'Just who or what was that guy?' he thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four is now up.

As always please rate and review.

* * *

Hunter was really starting to get sick of the forest. He'd spent hours jumping from tree to tree and had found nothing accept hostile ninjas. By now he was convinced that he was going in circles. He stopped suddenly when he heard a loud crash from further away in the forest.

'A battle?' he thought. 'So do I head towards it or away from it?...Oh what do I have to lose!' Hunter bounded off in the direction of the sound.

It didn't take long to find the source of the commotion. There were two people down on the ground below. Much to Hunter's surprise one of them was Anko , the other he didn't recognise. Hunter could tell from the damage to the area that the two had been fighting. Technically they still were fighting but it wasn't going well for Anko. She was down on one knee, clutching at her left shoulder. Hunter could see the magic in her curse mark firing up. He didn't know what exactly it was doing but it was obviously causing her a great deal of pain.

"Look out below!" both Anko and her opponent looked up just in time to see Hunter dropping down towards them. Hunter aimed a punch at the man but he jumped out of the way and landed on a tree branch.

"Hey! Don't you know it's rude to attack a lady! I swear, no one in this forest has any manners."

Anko looked up at Hunter in surprise 'What's he doing? Why did he interfere?'

"And just who might you be?" asked the man in a cold, insidious voice. Now that Hunter had a better view of him he could see this man wasn't normal. He had unnaturally pale, almost white skin, with snake like eyes, long black hair and the darkest heart that Hunter had seen yet.

'Yeah, this guy's a villain, no question.' thought Hunter. "I am Duncan MacLeod of the clan MacLeod!" he said in his best impression of a Scottish accent. "And you would be?"

"Hmhmhmh. I am Lord Orochimaru."

"Wow, yeah that name doesn't sound evil in the slightest. Why not just call yourself Lord Sauron and be done with it?"

Orochimaru let out an evil chuckle "My my. You are a brave one aren't you."

"Hunter. Get out of here! You have no idea what you're dealing with." said Anko through gritted teeth.

"No but I've got a pretty good idea." Hunter looked back up at Orochimaru "You're the one who put that mark on Anko's neck. And you did the same to that Sasuke kid to. Just what are you up to snake man!"

"Oh you need not concern yourself." he drew a kunai from his back pocket "You have bigger problems right now!" he threw the kunai at Hunter who easily caught it.

"Ha! Is that the best you can-"KABOOM

Hunter hadn't noticed the paper bomb wrapped round the kunai's handle. Orochimaru jumped down from the tree. "Well, so much for the young her-arrcck!."

A long metal chain and hook shot out of the smoke and wrapped itself around Orochimaru's waist, trapping his arms.

"What! These aren't normal chains, I can't break free!"

"Hey, Lizard Lips!" both Anko and Orochimaru looked over at the plume of smoke. As it cleared they saw Hunter standing there, completely unharmed and holding the other end of the chain. "GET OVER HERE!"

Hunter pulled and Orochimaru was yanked off his feet towards him. The chain unwrapped itself as Hunter did a spinning kick that smashed Orochimaru into a tree.

"Haha! I am never going to get tired of doing that!"

Orochimaru didn't stay down for long and within seconds he was back on his feet. 'Hmmm. This one is stronger than he looks. Almost as strong as Tsunade.' That was when he saw Hunters eyes. They were glowing bright yellow. He opened his mouth, allowing his long tongue to hang out. 'So he has a kekkei genkai. Interesting.'

"You gunna fight snake man or just stand there all day doing that tongue thing?"

"Sadly I have other matters to attend to. I'm sure we'll meet again though." With that he slowly sank into the ground. In seconds he was gone.

"That's right, be gone you jerk and make it fast. 'Cause if you don't I'll kick your-"

"Hey!" Hunter looked round at Anko. She was still clutching at her shoulder but now she was standing and holding a kunai in her free hand. "Your coming with me brat. I still have-argg." Anko dropped to one knee in pain.

"Um. You can't even stand. How are you going to bring me in?" asked Hunter. Anko didn't responded, she just gave him an angry look. "That's what I thought." Hunter looked over at the spot where Orochimaru had been 'That snake guy's going to be trouble. Oh I have a very bad feeling about all this.'

He looked back at Anko "Well it's been a fun third date but I've still got a job to do. Catch you later!" Before Anko could stop him he was gone, jumping off into the trees.

"What is he after?" she wondered aloud "He could have killed me or let Orochimaru finish me off. Why didn't he?"

Hunter continued jumping through the forest until he was sure that he'd left Anko far behind him. "Ok. Need a plan...need...a...plan...hmmm." A ray of sunlight shone down through the tree tops, making Hunter look up.

"I have a plan!" Hunter ran up the tree until he broke through the forest canopy. Looking around he could see a large tower in the centre of the forest.

"Why didn't I think of this sooner? Oh well."

It didn't take long for Hunter to arrive at the tower. There had been several groups of ninjas lying in wait but avoiding them was no trouble. Looking through the walls Hunter could see many Hearts inside. Not wanting another fight Hunter shape shifted into his ANBU disguise and snuck in through an open window. With no obvious way to go Hunter simply wandered around the tower, looking for...well he wasn't really sure what he was looking for. He passed a few people on his way. They either ignored him or just smiled and nodded politely.

Eventually he arrived at a huge set of double doors that lead to a large arena. Hunter could see a lot of people through the walls, he recognised some of them as Kakashi, Guy and Sarutobi.

"Well, this seems like where everything's happening. I can't go in the front door. Even in this disguise I'll draw attention. Guess that only leaves teleporting."

Hunter saw a suitable spot to aim for. Right at the far end of the arena was a statue of a pair of hands performing a hand sign. If he could teleport in right behind that he could observe without being seen.

"Ok. Focus...focus..." a black portal appeared around Hunter and in an instant he was transported directly behind the statue. "Ha. Text book teleporting. I'm getting good at this." Hunter dropped his ANBU disguise and carefully poked his head round the statue.

There were a lot of ninjas here. In addition to Kakashi, Might Guy and the Hokage there were also Neji, Lee, Tenten, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji. Another team of three were with them, there was a boy with red fang like marks on both cheeks, another who wore black sunglasses and a girl with the same white eyes as Neji. There were also two other older ninjas behind the younger ones. One woman with red eyes and long black hair and a man with spiky black hair and a beard. Finally there was a man with silver hair and large glasses. Looking at his heart Hunter could tell he was evil and deceitful. Definitely one to watch out for.

On the other side of the room were the three sound ninjas. Standing next to them was a man that Hunter instantly recognised. His appearance may have changed but there was no mistaking that heart. Orochimaru. Looking away from the snake man Hunter focused on the last team.

There was a girl with blond hair and what looked like a large black pole strapped to her back, a boy who wore red face paint and had something wrapped in bandages on his back. The last member of the team was shorter than the other two with red hair and a red symbol on the left side of his forehead. What really got Hunters attention was that, like Naruto, this guy had another Heart.

'So he must have a monster locked up inside too.' thought Hunter. He could see that the boys own heart was full of shadows, definitely not a nice person. Standing lest to the left of them was a tall man with bandages around most of his face. Other than that there was nothing Hunter found interesting about him.

"Let the Preliminary Rounds begin!" announced a ninja that was standing in the arena.

Hunter hid behind the statue and watched the matches. Sasuke went first against a guy called Yoroi. It wasn't an easy fight but Sasuke won using a technique called Lions Barrage. As soon as he was done he was taken away by Kakashi. Orochimaru left too. Hunter wanted to follow but he couldn't leave without being seen.

Next up was a fight between Zaku and the kid with sunglasses, Shino. Shino won by blocking Zaku's air tubs with beetles which ruptured the pipes in his arms. Hunter couldn't help but laugh at that. 'Serves you right' he thought.

The next battle was between the guy with the red face paint, who was named Kankuro and a man named Misumi. It was a short match with Kankuro as the victor. Apparently the thing wrapped in bandages was in fact a humanoid puppet that Kankuro could control. During this fight Kakashi returned but Orochimaru and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen.

Next was a rather heated fight between Sakura and Ino that ended in a tie, both knocking each other out. The next match was Tenten against the blond woman with the black pole-thing, Temari. As it turned out the pole was a giant fan that let Temari control wind. She easily deflected every attack Tenten threw at her then defeated her. After that Shikamaru was pitted against Kin in another short match that Shikamau won using his shadow imitation technique.

The next fight was much more interesting. Naruto was fighting the kid with the red fang marks, Kiba and his dog Akamaru. It was quit the battle, plenty of kicks, punches and a killer fart. In the end Naruto won with a modified version of Sasuke's Lions Barrage.

The fight after that was between Neji and the white eyed girl, Hinata. The match started with Neji intimidating and berating her which confirmed what Hunter already thought of Neji. Total Jerk. Hinata seemed ready to give in but then Naruto started cheering her on. Hunter saw something change in Hinata's heart. It seemed to...grow. She still lost her fight with Neji, and suffered some pretty major injuries into the bargain but at least she'd had the strength to try.

The second last fight was between Lee and Gaara, the guy with the monster inside. Hunter soon found out that he'd been wrong about Gaara. He wasn't just 'not a nice person', he was completely psychotic.

It was an intense fight. Lee was fast and strong but Gaara was protected by a shield of sand that made striking him almost impossible. Later in the match Lee used a technique called Primary Lotus. With his speed and power increased Lee was able to bypass the sand shield and start hurting Gaara. Lee then tried to finish the match using a move called Hidden Lotus but Gaara survived and used his Sand Coffin attack to crush Lee's left arm and leg.

The final fight was between Dosu and Choji. The fight lasted less than a minute and unfortunately Dosu won.

"Congratulations to all of you for passing the Preliminaries!" said the Hokage. "I'm sure our guest had an interesting time observing you all!"

Hunter tensed up 'Does he mean me? No, he can't have seen me!'

"Or did you think I wouldn't notice you hiding behind the statue!?"

'Oh snap!'

Hunter jumped out from his hiding place and landed on top of the statue "For an old guy you have really good eye sight!"

"Hey Hunter!" yelled Naruto in a friendly voice "What are you doing here!?"

"Bit of this, bit of that. Great fight by the way. Even I didn't see that fart attack coming. Hey Neji, how's the arm?"

Neji griped his broken arm and gave Hunter an angry look.

"WHERE'S MY BOOK YOU FEIND!" yelled Kakashi.

"Which part?"

"Huh, Kakashi sensei, have you met Hunter?" asked Naruto.

"Yes, he's a criminal who's escaped from custody, attacked Hidden leaf ninjas, broken into the Hokage's office and defiled my book!"

That surprised everyone.

'He's a criminal' thought Naruto.

"Drama queen. You're making it sound far worse than it actually is." protested Hunter.

"This guy did all that?" said Kankuro "Wow, the Hidden leaf must really be losing its touch if this clown can elude you."

"You're calling me a clown? That's rich, you're wearing more makeup than most fashion models. Plus at least I don't play with dolls!"

That wiped the smirk of Kankuro's face. Now he just looked angry.

Hunter laughed "Don't play with fire man, unless you want-cripes!" Hunter jumped down to the arena to avoid an attack by Kakashi.

"Play time's over Hunter." said Kakashi as he jumped down after Hunter. He was joined in the ring by Guy and the other two older ninjas, Asuma and Kurenai.

"Four against one. Hardly a fair fight." said Asuma.

"You're right." agreed Hunter "I'd better fight with my eyes closed." He placed his left hand over his eyes.

All four jōnin attacked at once, aiming to bring Hunter down as quickly as possible. Suddenly Hunter removed his hand, revealing his glowing yellow eyes.

"STOP!"

All four jōnin were instantly frozen in time. Everyone else was just staring in shock.

While they were frozen Hunter re-arraigned Asuma and Kurenai so they would now collide with each other. He also adjusted Kurenai's arm so her punch would hit Asuma in the crotch. He then pulled down guys trousers and brought Kakashi's head band down over both his eyes.

"Three two one and ACTION!"

Time resumed. Asuma and Kurenai crashed into each other. The male ninja let out a pained cry as his ally's punch hit him in the privets. Guy tripped over and then went red in the face when he realised what Hunter had done. Kakashi stopped in his tracks and lifted his head band, while keeping his left eye covered.

The first thing he saw was his friends in various states of embarrassment. The second was Hunter almost falling over with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Oh what I'd give for a camera right now! HAHAHAHA! Next I'm taking you out." He pointed at Gaara "I'm taking you out." then at Dosu "I'm taking you down." then Neji "I'm taking you out!" then Kankuro "And I'm taking you out..to diner!" and finally Temari who would have rolled her eyes if she weren't still amazed by the time stop spell.

"What kind of jutsu was that?" asked Sakura.

"It looked like he...stopped time." said Naruto.

"Impossible." they both looked at Shikamaru "No jutsu can stop time. It can't be done."

"Impossible! Pfft. No such thing man. Believe me. If you think stopping time's the only trick I've got then boy are you in for a surprise." Hunters chains and hooks appeared, falling to the ground with a dull metallic thud.

"I haven't even started fighting yet boys and girls. I'm the master of TIME and I demand all of you kneel. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

While Hunter was having his fun Kakashi had decide to end this farce. He lifted up his head band, revealing his sharingan eye. 'Ok' he thought 'let's see how you handle...what!?' One of the powers that the sharingan grants is the ability to see your opponents chakra, the energy that all ninjas use for ninjutsu and genjutsu. Hunter had none what so ever. 'How can he use such powerful jutsu with no chakra!?'

"Just who are you!?" demanded Kakashi.

"I'm running out of witty alias's for myself. Ok one more." Hunter cleared his throat "I am ULFRIC STORMCLOAK! Jarl of Windhelm and true High King of Skyrim! Bow before me in the name of TALOS!" Hunter took up a mock heroic pose, then he burst out laughing.

"Is he completely crazy?" asked Kurenai.

"If you're only realising that now then you haven't been paying attention." chuckled Hunter.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" suddenly about a half dozen Naruto clones dropped down from above and charged at Hunter.

"Hey what the-aah! Wow!" Hunter avoided the flurry of blows and jumped back. He swung his chain round in front of him in an arc, destroying several clones but the rest dodged and pressed the attack. One Naruto got really close but had to jump away to avoid Hunter's chain attack.

"So this is the thanks I get for saving you in the forest huh!" said Hunter.

"Yeah well that was before you attacked my sensei." said all the remaining Naruto's in unison.

"He started it!" insisted Hunter. 'I used up most of my magic on that stop spell. Now might be a good time to get out of Dodge.'

"Well as fun as this has been I must make like a tree and Hidden Leaf. Oh that was terrible. Even by my standards." A black portal appeared, swallowing Hunter up. Then it disappeared, along with Hunter.

"He's gone again." said Guy while adjusting his trousers. "And we still don't know anything about him."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." said Naruto. Everyone looked at him. The blond Ninja was holding a small black rectangle in his right hand. "I got this from Hunters pocket while he wasn't looking."

"HA! Nice work Naruto. The fires of youth really do burn strongly in you!" proclaimed Guy. Everyone else ignored him.

"Great. So what is it?" asked Shikamaru.

"It's...erm...well it's obviously a..."

"You have no idea what that is do you?" said Sakura.

"Well...no. But it has to be important! Why else would he have it in his pocket! Hm. Hey, there's a button on it."

"Don't press it you idiot!" yelled Sakura.

Too late. A small screen on the device lit up and it made several beeping sounds.

Naruto held the device a little closer to his face "Hello?"

On the other end of the line DiZ sighed to himself.

'What has Hunter done now?'


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hunter re-appeared on top of the Hokage Mountain. Once he'd finally stopped laughing he looked down at the Leaf village.

"Wow. Ok I've had my fun. Back to hunting nobodies. Hmm. Better call DiZ and..." Hunter reached into his pocket and found that his phone was gone. He checked his other pocket, then patted himself down trying to locate his missing phone.

"What the...where did it..." then he remembered the fight with Naruto and his clones. One of the Naruto's had gotten close before Hunter could stop him. He must have pick pocketed him and taken his phone.

"NARUTO!"

This would be a problem. Hunter had gotten better at using the black portals but he still didn't know if he could make it back to Twilight Town on his own.

"Ah Snap. Well, nothing ventured...Ok...focus..fo-eh?"

Hunter looked up at the sky and saw something shinning. It looked like a shooting star. As he watched it got bigger and bigger.

'Wait...it's not getting bigger, it's getting closer! It's coming right at me!'

Hunter jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the star, which crashed just where he'd been standing seconds ago. Hunter got back up and, believing he was under attack, scanned the area for enemies. Finding none he turned his attention to the shooting star.

He cautiously approached the small crater it had made and looked down. He'd expected to find a small lump of rock, what he found was a blue crystal in the shape of a star the size of his hand.

Hunter slowly reached down and picked the star up. It wasn't even warm. He held it up to his ear and gave it a shake.

"Hmmm. Strange...very strange."

Hunter was about to pocket the star and try teleporting again when suddenly it started glowing with an inner light.

Hunter felt himself getting lifted off the ground "Oh..."

If anyone from the Hidden Leaf would have looked up right then they would have seen a strange ball of light rocketing upwards into the sky. And if they'd have listened closely they may have just made out someone yelling "SNAAAAAAAAP!"

After a few minutes of weightlessness and blinding white light Hunter crashed face first into a solid stone floor.

"Ouch." he moaned. Getting up off the floor Hunter took in his new surroundings. He was in a large room with several book shelves lining the walls, two great green metal doors, one behind him and one to his right. In front of him was a large wooden table with a high backed chair and behind that were three windows in the shape of stars and a crescent moon.

Lying at his feet was the crystal star. Hunter carefully avoided that, not wanting to go on another 'trip', and made his way over to the windows.

"Now, let's see where...oh...my..."

Looking out the window Hunter saw a great sea of golden clouds, interspersed with occasional green hills that looked almost luminous. Looking down Hunter found that he was on the top floor of a tower that rested on a small island that was floating amidst the endless sea of bright clouds.

"I am not in Kansas anymore."

"That, you are not." Hunter spun round and saw a man standing next to the wooden table. He was tall with a scowling face, a long gray beard, blue robes and a pointed blue hat covered in yellow stars.

"No doubt you have questions." continued the man.

Hunter didn't know where to start "Who...where...HOW!?"

The man raised up his hand for silence. "I am Yen Sid. This is my tower. And you arrived here by use of my Star Shard. I sent it to you to bring you here."

"Ok, new question. Why?"

"You are a true rarity. A Heartless that not only thinks but also feels and cares for others. I believe that we should have a chance to talk."

"Flattery will get you everywhere. Ok let's talk."

Yen Sid sat down in his chair while Hunter walked round to the other side of the table.

"Now then." began Yen Sid. "I notice that you have already unlocked many abilities including the use of magic."

"How do you know that?"

"I always keep a close watch on the tides of light and darkness. I have been observing you for some time. You have already unlocked the spells Aero, Blizzard and Stop but there are others."

"More spells? Can you teach me?" asked Hunter.

Yen Sid closed his eyes for a moment. "I will teach you two more. The rest I'm sure you can discover on your own."

Yen Sid raised his hand and a book from one of the shelves floated over and placed itself on the table before Hunter. It opened up to a page midway through the book. Hunter lent in to read what it said.

"Reflect is a defensive spell." said Yen Sid as Hunter read. "It will not only protect you from harm but it will reflect any attack in the form of a magical explosion."

Once hunter was finished the book flicked through several more of its pages. "Cure is a healing spell. It can be used on yourself or an ally, but it will use up all of you magic. Use it wisely."

"There is one more thing." said Yen Sid The book flicked back through its own pages until it was almost back at the beginning. "Each spell has three tiers to it. I can give you the knowledge of Stopra, Blizzara and Aerora. The rest you will learn in time."

The book closed then returned to its shelf.

"Ok." now Hunter was paying attention "So...how come every time I use magic I feel...drained. Some spells make me feel more tired than others."

Yen Sid nodded. "Yes, your spells require draw on the magic within you to power them. You can only cast a limited number of spells before you need to regenerate this energy."

"What about Darkness?"

"That is not the same as casting magic spells. It draws on your own inner darkness and therefore it is far more powerful. A normal human would be taking a great risk by using such power but as a Heartless, you will not be affected."

Hunters face lit up. "Cool!"

"A word of warning." said Yen Sid, seriously. "While you may look human now you are still a Hunter of the Dark underneath. Your Heartless instinct to consume the hearts of others will be ever present. Remember what happened with Naruto in the woods."

Hunter shivered slightly. He hadn't even realised what he was doing until it was almost too late.

"Why are you helping me?" asked Hunter.

"The worlds are in great danger, not just the Elemental Nations. I believe that you can help save them."

"Well...thanks...I guess. Hey I don't suppose you could send me back to Twilight Town. I need to get back to DiZ."

Yen Sid nodded. "Ah yes. Tell me Hunter, do you trust DiZ, Riku and Naminé?"

Hunter rubbed his chin "Hmm. Riku and Naminé, yes. DiZ, no. There's just something about him that...He wants to destroy Organisation Thirteen. I don't think anything matters more to him than that."

"A wise answer. I wish you luck in you quest. And should you find yourself lost and unsure where to turn, trust what your Heart tells you."

Yen Sid raised his arms and Hunter disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"*Cough**cough* What the heck was that Yen...Sid?" As the smoke cleared Hunter found that he was now back in Twilight Town. More specifically he was in the main hall of the old mansion. It still looked as dilapidated as ever.

"Hello! DiZ!...Riku!?" when no one answered his calls Hunter decided to search the place. He started by going up the stairs to the second floor balcony and round to the left. At the far end of the balcony was a simple wooden door, just like any other in the mansion.

When Hunter opened it he found the room beyond was very different. For a start it was completely white with an almost shinny quality. The floor was made of black and white squares like a chess board. Stuck to the walls were several simple drawings that all showed a boy with spiky blond hair.

"Hello Hunter."

Hunter looked to his right and saw Naminé sitting in an ornate white chair. She finished her drawing and put her sketch book down.

"Hey Naminé. Any sign of Riku and DiZ?"

The girl shock her head. "No. DiZ doesn't tell me what's going on most of the time. I'm sure he's here somewhere though."

"Right." Hunter looked back at the drawings. "So, you drew all these?"

Naminé's mood seemed to brighten. "Yes. Each one is a memory from-"

"That's quite enough Naminé." A black portal appeared to Hunters left and DiZ appeared from it.

"Hello to you too DiZ." said Hunter. "Listen, there's been a ...hicup. You see my-"

"Yes Hunter I already know?"

Hunter looked puzzled "How?"

DiZ held out his hand, in which was his phone. He pressed the button to turn it back on.

"Was this all he had on him?" Hunter recognise Kakashi's voice instantly.

"I don't know I didn't have time to check all his pockets!" that was Naruto, no doubt.

"It looks like a piece of junk to me." and there was Sakura.

Hunter was suddenly struck by inspiration. He picked up the phone and took a deep breath.

_Back in the Elemental nations_

After Hunter's disappearing act the Hokage had sent his Anbu guards to search for him but he didn't expect them to. Fortunately Naruto had retrieved a...something from Hunters person that might shed some light on his intentions.

The Hokage was currently in one of the upper levels of the forest of death's tower, along with Anko, Kabuto, and the other Hidden leaf genin along with their sensei's. The only ones not present were the Sand Siblings, their sensei and Dosu, who'd gone back to the Hidden Leaf already and Hinata, Rock Lee and Sasuke who were hospitalised.

"Hello...hello?" Naruto was trying to talk to the box again.

"It's not going to answer you back idiot." said Sakura.

Anko plucked the device from Naruto's grip. "Whatever it is I don't think a genin should-"

**"THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS!" **

Anko dropped the box and jumped back. Several ninjas drew their weapons, Ino screamed, Shikamaru, who had been ready to fall asleep, fell over backwards. Naruto leapt into Sakura's arms, only to be dropped seconds later.

**"WE KNOW YOU CAN HEAR US EARTH MEN!"**

_Back in the white room_

Hunter switched off the phone and handed it back to DiZ. "Ha! That'll teach 'em!"

DiZ rolled his visible eye while Naminé let out a giggle.

"Don't suppose I can get another-"

"No." said DiZ adamantly "You'll have to retrieve you old phone from the villagers."

"Great." muttered Hunter. "You were right by the way. There are nobodies in that world but I don't know what they're up to yet. Got a little...side tracked."

"Then I suggest you find out, and quickly. Every minute you waist with your attempts at humour is one more that the Organisation has to prepare."

"I know that. But If I didn't laugh, all I'd do is cry." Hunter made an exaggerated sad face. "Hey, can you portal me back?."

DiZ rolled his eye again, then he raised his hand and a new black portal appeared before Hunter.

He looked back at Naminé and said "Later!" before he walked through the portal.

Stepping out from the portal Hunter found that he was back in the Hidden Leaf, in a rather dirty back alley lined with several foul smelling dumpsters.

"Alright, no more fooling around. No more distractions!" said Hunter as he walked out of the alley. "First I'm getting my phone back, then-Oof!"

No sooner than he'd left the alley Hunter walked straight into someone. That someone was a woman with wild, spiky brown hair, purple lipstick and the same red fang marks on her cheeks as Kiba. Hunter couldn't decide if she was strangely beautiful or drop dead terrifying. Next to her was a large wolf with black fur on the top and white underneath. It was missing its left ear and had an eye patch over its right eye.

"Hey, watch it kid!" said the woman.

"Sorry mister." Hunter couldn't resist poking fun.

"I'm a woman." she snarled.

Hunter cringed "Ouch!"

"You should show respect to your elders boy." It took Hunter a moment to realised that it was the dog that was talking.

"You're a talking dog."

The dog gave an amused snort "Noticed that, did you."

Hunter looked back at the woman "He's a talking dog."

She rolled her eyes "Yes, Kuromaru can talk."

"You're a talking dog!" said Hunter, again.

Kuromaru looked up at the woman "Not very bright is he Tsume."

Hunter finally recovered from the 'talking dog' surprise "Hey, are you related to a kid called Kiba?"

Tsume nodded "Yep. He's my son. I'm guessing your one of his friends?"

"Well...not exactly. I just saw him in the Chunin exams."

Tsume's grin widened "Ah, so your here to take the exams are you?"

"Erm..yes, yes. The exams. Say, do you know where Kiba, Naruto and the rest o them are? Only they have something of mine and I need it...what?"

Tsume had started giving Hunter a strange look."You seem familiar." she turned her head to look at her dog, who was also examining him carefully.

"Hmm. Wait, I think he's the one who broke into the Hokage's Tower!" said Kuromaru.

"What? No, no. That's not me."

"It's him! He matches the description. Black hair, red symbol, annoying attitude." continued the dog.

Hunter looked from the now snarling dog to Tsume. "Can I have some last words?"

Tsume cracked her knuckles "Go ahead."

Hunter took a deep breath and yelled "YOU ARE ONE WEIRD LOOKING LADY!"

Then he turned and bolted back into the alley. Tsume and Kuromaru followed but the instant they rounded the corner they were hit by a wave of garbage. To a normal human this would have been revolting enough but the ninja and her dog both had an extremely heightened sense of smell which made it all the worse.

Hunter was standing just ahead of them, holding a empty trash can, the contents of which he'd just thrown over the pair.

"Nice try lady, but as the road runner said to the coyote. MEEP MEEP!" Hunter dropped the can and ran off, with a garbage covered Tsume and Kuromaru following close behind.

They chased Hunter out of the alley, across the street and into another back street where Hunter disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" asked Tsume.

"I don't know! All I can smell is garbage." replied Kuromaru.

"Let's split up and search the place. He can't have gone far."

What Tsume and Kuramaru didn't know was that Hunter was still close by. As soon as he'd made it to the back street he'd dived into an open door, closing it behind him. He listened to their exchange and quietly giggled to himself.

"Hello."

Hunter nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning round he saw a young woman with light brown hair dressed in a white robe with a dark blue apron.

"You must be the new assistant." she continued.

"Assist-wha-" before Hunter could argue the woman put a blue apron around his waist and dragged him through to the front of the restaurant. There was a area for cooking and in front of that a bar with stools where the customers would sit and eat.

"We're going to have a lot of customers today so that means you'll have a lot of orders to fill. Utensils are here, ingredients here and don't forget to wash your hands. Oh, I almost forgot. Welcome to Ichraku's Ramen."

"Wait. I'm not-"

"Get ready you two." said an older, jovial man over by the front of the restaurant. "It's lunch time and everyone's on their way."

"Lunch time! Wait I-"

"Just remember what you learned in cooking school and you'll do fine." said the girl.

"But...but..." Hunter stammered 'Oh, this couldn't get any worse!'

That was when the customers arrived. And each and every one was a ninja. To start with they were all chatting and only interested in the menu. Then they spotted Hunter. At first they just though that he was the new hired help. Then they started to recognise him.

"Oh snap."

"Is...is there a problem?" asked the older man as he nervously looked at his customers.

"You have insurance on this place right?" asked Hunter.

"Well, yes."

"Good, no worries then."

That was when two new customers arrived, still covered in bits of garbage.

"We've been chasing him long enough. I could really use some-YOU!" Hunter winced at Tsume's voice.

"Erm. Hi guys. Bye guys! Blizzara!" several ninjas that were close to Hunter were frozen solid.

He jumped over the ninja-sickles, weaved through the rest of them and ran out into the street, taking off the apron as he went.

Looking over his shoulder he could see the other ninjas right behind him, Tsume and Kuromaru at the head of the group.

"Snap, snap, snap SNAP!"

The ninjas lost sight of Hunter for a moment as he rounded a corner. When they arrived they found that Hunter had disappeared again. The only person there was Sakura.

"Sakura. Did you see Hunter run by just now?" asked Kuromaru.

The girl nodded "Yes, he went that way." she pointed at an ally to the left of the street.

Tsume grinned "We have him now. Sakura, go and tell Lord Hokage that Hunter is back and we'll be bringing him in very soon."

The ninja mob continued their pursuit while Sakura stayed were she was.

"Keep dreaming dog lady." she said in Hunters voice.

Hunter had know that he couldn't out run them all or fight them all so he'd opted to fool them instead.

Looking to his left he saw that he was standing next to a shop that primarily sold kimonos. Suddenly struck by an idea Hunter went inside.

Seconds later he emerged in a new disguise. This new image was basically a female version of himself with long black hair, golden-yellow eyes and red lipstick. He'd also changed his outfit to a white kimono with blue wave patterns, which he'd copied from one of the outfits in the shop.

He took a moment to admire his new look. "Dam, I look good like this. Now, Operation find Naruto and get my phone back is a go!"

As it turned out Naruto wasn't that hard to find. He was in an alley next to a spa where several women were bathing in the hot springs. With him were two other ninjas that Hunter hadn't seen before. One was on the ground, unconscious, the other was an older man with shoulder length white hair, red lines that ran down from his eyes and a wart on the left side of his nose.

Hunter had no idea what was going on between the three of them, nor did he want to know.

"Excuse me? Are you Naruto?" he asked in a sugary, female voice.

The two ninjas instantly stopped arguing and looked at 'her'.

Naruto blushed slightly "Well, yeah...yeah I'm Naruto." he said in a goofy voice.

"Heeello my dear lady!" Hunter looked over at the older man. "I am Jiraiya."

"Yeah, whatever. So Naruto-"

"Jiraiya the Sanin. Legendary ninja, author, sage and lover." continued the man.

"Good for you." said Hunter, dismissively.

Jiraiya looked deflated.

"So Naruto, I heard you fought that Hunter guy all by yourself." Hunter advanced on Naruto, who was still as clueless as ever.

"Well, I wasn't...erm..."

"You're so brave and strong." said Hunter while thinking 'I can't believe that he's falling for this.'

"I heard that you took something from him after your victory. A black rectangle. Where is it now?"

Naruto shuddered at the thought of that thing. "Oh, that. It's with the Hokage. That thing was creepy, there was a voice that came out of it that was just-"

**"DO YOU MEAN THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS?"**

Naruto and Jiraiya both jumped several feet into the air at the sound of the deep, otherworldly voice emanating from this girl.

"Hahaha! Oh man you should see the looks on your faces!" Hunter changed back into his male form.

Naruto stared at him wide eyed "Wha- Hunter! B-but you...you were...arrgh!"

"And just who are you?" demanded Jiraiya, once he'd recovered from the shock.

"Name's Hunter. Thanks for the info knuckle heads. I'm off to have a chat with the Hokage. And as for you two." Hunter gave them both his most evil grin. "I have ways of ensuring silence."

Hunter changed back into his female disguise and leapt over the wooden fence into the hot springs.

Naruto and Jiraiya both heard him say "Hey girls! There's two guys out the back there spying on you!"

Then there were several angry screams of "WHAT!" followed by someone yelling "GET THEM!"

"Now would be a good time for us to run kid!" said Jiraiya.

"Wait, what about Hunter and my training!" insisted Naruto.

"If we survive then maybe-"

"THERE THEY ARE!" Naruto looked round and saw a large group of angry women heading straight for them.

"Run!" yelled Jiraiya. Naruto didn't need any further encouragement.

Hunter, still in his female disguise, was standing back and laughing his head off as he watched them go.

"Ok, next stop. Hokage Tower."

Getting in the tower was easier than last time. Hunter looked like a normal woman going about her business, no one challenged him although he did attract some unwanted attention from some of the male ninjas. Hunter couldn't decide if this whole experience was funny or disturbing.

When he arrived at the Hokage's office on the top floor he found that it was guarded by two ANBU operatives and inside he could see the Hokage, Kakashi, Anko, Asuma, Guy and Kurenai.

"No time to be subtle. Oh well..."

_Inside the Hokage's office._

The Hokage was seated at his desk with some of the top level ninja's in the village assembled in his office. They were all looking down at the small black rectangle lying inert on the desk.

"So who are these 'Mysterons'?" asked Asuma. "And how are they connected to Hunter?"

"I have no idea." said Kakashi. "But I think this device is how he was receiving his orders."

"So, the question becomes 'what are his orders?'" said Guy.

"Maybe he's here to annoy us all to death." remarked Anko.

"Yes, Hunter is certainly not a typical shinobi." said Sarutobi. "However, the more I think on what he's said and done-"

The Hokage was interupted when he heard two loud metallic clangs from outside. Everyone else had heard the same thing and they all turned to face the door.

The door was suddenly kicked in and Hunter barged into the room. He'd changed his outfit slightly so that he now wore a thick leather duster and a large rimed hat. He had his head tilted so the rim covered his eyes.

"Mr Sarutobi." said Hunter in an impression of a western gunslinger's voice. He raised in head slowly, letting everyone see his glowing yellow eyes. "Ya'll got somethin' that belongs to me."

For a few seconds no one moved, they just stared at Hunter. Then the jōnin drew their weapons.

"STOPRA!" Everyone except Hunter was frozen in place. Hunter could feel the drain on his magic reserves. That spell used up almost all of his power. He made a mental note to use that one sparingly.

He walked past the frozen ninjas and picked up his phone from the desk.

"Pleasure doing business with ya'll." Hunter was about to get out his pen and apply more of his 'art' to their faces when he spotted something out the window. He walked up to the glass and looked down at the street below. Casually walking down the street were to two nobodies from before. At least he thought they were the same ones. Without hearts it was hard to tell.

Hunter had no time to waist. He retrieved Kakashi's book, tore out another page and placed it in the man's hand. Then he opened the window and leapt out onto the rooftops, changing his cloths back to normal as he went.

"You're not getting away this time. The hunt is on!"

* * *

And that's chapter five done.

Next chapter will include a fight with main villain, Thorn, and a surprise guest character. I won't say who but it's sure to be 'shocking'.

TTFN


	6. Chapter 6

And here's the latest chapter, up and running.

I'd like to thank all those who've reviewed my story thus far. Your feed back is very much appreciated. And to Sam4810, thanks for your suggestions. I'll see if I can use those lines in later chapters.

Just to reiterate my disclaimer: All guest characters are the property of their respective owners and not me.

* * *

Chapter 6

Hunter kept to the rooftops as he followed the two nobodies. Much like the last time they both looked like two normal human women just out having a walk and a friendly chat. You'd only notice something wrong if you were paying attention. By now the sun was setting, bathing the village in golden light.

Hunter followed them both until they halted in a back alley near the edge of the village. Then they both looked up straight at Hunter.

'They saw me! How?' thought Hunter as he jumped down to street level.

"Hey ladies!" the nobodies didn't so much as blink, they just stared at him.

"Quiet types huh? Alright, we do this the hard way!" Hunters chain-hooks materialised and fell to the ground with a loud clang.

The Nobodies forms suddenly began to glow white. When the light subsided the nobodies no longer looked human. They had thin, dragon-like bodies with silver and purple skin and large white wings lined by spikes. Both were wielding strange long laces that were designed to look vaguely like the Nobody Symbol that they wore on their left thighs.

"Oh snap." muttered Hunter.

The nobody on the left rose off the ground and launched itself at him. Hunter jumped over it and ran at the other nobody. He was about to strike it when the creature bent over backwards to avoid him, then it twisted round, slicing Hunter across the back with its lance.

"Ow! That hurt you jerk!" yelled Hunter. The nobody ignored him and jammed its lance forwards.

Hunter dodged to the left. At the same time the other nobody appeared above him and dropped down, trying to impale him.

Hunter rolled out of the way, avoiding the lance but he was caught in the energy shockwave from its attack which slammed him into a wall.

"Ooof! Ok, no more Mister Nice Guy!"

Hunter pushed off from the wall and slammed into the closest nobody, knocking it to the ground. Its comrade tried to attack from behind but Hunter swung round one of his chains which wrapped around the creatures lance. Hunter pulled on the chain, yanking the nobody towards him. Then he kicked it square in the chest, sending it flying backwards while he caught hold of its lance.

The other nobody twisted and warped its body, slithering out from under him and reforming to Hunters left. Hunter gave the lace a twirl then swung it round in a one-eighty degree spin. The nobody dodged by floating backwards. It tried to launch a counter attack while Hunters back was to it but Hunter jammed the lance backwards, stabbing the nobody with the hilt. The nobody shattered in a shower of white shards.

Now there was only one left and it had no weapon.

Hunter pointed the lance at the creature. "Give up yet!"

It didn't reply, it just raised its hand. Instantly the lance vanished from Hunters grasp and reappeared in the nobodies hand. It twirled the weapon round then pointed it at Hunter.

"Neat trick."

The nobody charged at Hunter, planning to impale him. Hunter jumped over it, spinning round in mid air he flung out his chains which wrapped around the creatures body then pulled it towards him. Once it was close he fired two dark bolts from his palms at point blank range that destroyed the nobody.

Hunter landed back on the ground and dispelled his chains. "So much for those two. Oh well."

Hunter was about to leave but when he turned round he found his path out of the ally was blocked. Another nobody was standing a few feet from him. This wasn't just any nobody though. It looked exactly like Hunter except it had the symbol of the nobodies on its shirt instead of the Heartless symbol and it was wearing what looked like a light blue scarf around its neck with four loose ends at the back that came down almost to the floor.

Hunter was almost at a loss for words "Holy...your my...erm...hi."

His Nobody did nothing, it just stood there staring at him.

"Can you talk?" asked Hunter, taking a step closer.

The Nobody nodded slowly.

"Are you going to talk?"

It shook its head.

"Cute. Don't suppose that you'd consider leaving Organisation Thirteen and coming to work for the good guys?"

It shook its head again.

"I was afraid of that." Hunters chains reappeared as he charged at his Nobody. It easily side stepped his attack. Hunter followed up by throwing several punches and trying to catch the Nobody in his chains but it skilfully evaded him. Like the last two, his Nobody seemed to have an astounding level of flexibility. Its body seemed to warp and twist, allowing it to avoid everything Hunter threw at it.

Hunter swung his chains round in an arc, the hooks ripping chunks out of the walls as they went but the Nobody back flipped away.

It came to a stop a few feet away. It raised its left arm and several jagged black and white lines instantly shot out from its forearms right at Hunter.

He managed to avoid them by jumping up onto the wall. Looking back down he saw that the lines had torn right through anything in their path.

"Oh, that is cool."

Hunter jumped at his Nobody, pulling back his arm to deliver a punch. The Nobodies scarf suddenly came to life, the loose ends shot out and wrapped around Hunter's arms and legs, holding him in place.

"Arrck! What the-?!"

The Nobody extended its right hand and a ball of energy formed in its palm. The orb grew larger and larger until it was about the size of a watermelon. Then it pulled its arm back, planning to ram the ball into Hunter.

Someone dropped down between Hunter and the Nobody. Whoever it was it raised their arm, creating a large transparent square shield of energy that blocked the Nobodies attack. The energy ball exploded, creating a powerful gust of wind that swept through the alleyway. The Nobody let go of Hunter and back flipped away.

"Hunter, you ok?" Hunter knew that voice. Riku.

Looking up he saw the silver haired teen standing in front of him, holding his bat wing-like blade in his right hand.

"Riku! Did you have fun waiting for the most dramatic moment to drop in?"

Riku gave a short laugh.

"Riku." Both of them looked back at the Nobody. It was standing further down the alley facing them. The ends of its scarf were moving around slowly like an octopus' tentacles. The creepiest thing about it though was how empty and emotionless it sounded.

It spoke again "Riku."

"Why are you here!?" demanded Riku. "What does the Organisation want?"

It didn't respond.

"Who are you?" asked Hunter "Who am I? Who are **we**!?"

The Nobody tilted it's head to the side. "I am" a black portal began to appear around it "Twilight Thorn." then it was gone.

"He'd make a great Doctor Who." muttered Hunter. Then he looked over at Riku. "So, what brings you here? Other than saving my life."

"I came by to see how you were doing. I didn't expect to find you fighting your own Nobody."

Hunter nodded in agreement "Yeah, that was weird. He said his name was 'Twilight Thorn'. So is he part of the Organisation?"

"No. He's just a very powerful lesser Nobody. I guess you could call him an enforcer, or a herald."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better. Hey, we should probably get out of here, before all the ninjas show up wondering what all the noise is about."

Riku chuckled "Hmhmhm. Yeah. I gather you've made quite an impression. Are you ever going to give that Kakashi guy's book back?"

"I am returning it!" insisted Hunter "Just not all at the same time."

Riku pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "I've still got a lot of things to do so I can't stay long. Here." Riku reached into his coat and brought out three necklaces which he handed to Hunter.

"Stylish jewellery?" asked Hunter. "But I'm fabulous already."

"They're summon charms. Use them to call for help if you need it. These three should be able to help in most situation. And then there's this one." Riku produced a fourth summon charm. "The people in this world can summon large monsters to aide them in battle. This guy can help you even up the odds."

Hunter took the charm and examined it closely. There was an image on the charm that looked like a roaring beast.

"I'd only use him in emergencies though. He's very large. And cranky."

Hunter nodded "Emergencies only. Got it. Anything else?"

"No, that's it. Good luck against Thorn. He may not be part of the Organisation but he looks dangerous."

"His first name is 'Twilight', how tough can he be?"

Riku laughed as he disappeared into a black portal.

Hunter left the alley, wondering where to go from here.

"I'm telling you guys, I heard something over here!" Hunter looked to his right and saw a trio of kids, two boys and one girl. The boy that was leading the group had brown spiky hair and was wearing a yellow shirt with a strange symbol on it, along with a pair of goggles that covered his forehead. The other boy had short brown hair, large spectacles and a drip of snot hanging from his nose. The girl had orange hair tied up in two very large pigtails and bright red blush marks on her cheeks.

"Hey Mister!" yelled the lead boy, even though he was only a few feet from Hunter. "Have you seen anything strange around here?"

"Do you three count?" asked Hunter.

That made the leader angry "Hey, what's that supposed to-"

"Er, Konohamaru?" the one with the runny nose interrupted "I think that this is the guy who broke into your grandpa's tower."

That caught Hunters attention "Grandpa? You're Sarutobi's grandkid!"

For some reason that made the boy even more angry "My name is Konohamaru!" he yelled "Udon, Moegi, get ready. We're taking this guy down!" Konohamaru got into a combat stance. His two friends didn't look as eager as he was but they followed his lead.

Hunter smiled and rotated his right shoulder "Alright. If it's a fight you-Oh, wait!" He reached into his pocket and brought out his new summon charms. "Perfect opportunity for a test drive. Let's see, eni, mini, miney, mo." Hunter picked out one of the charms and put the others away.

"Alright, let's see what these can do!" The charm began to glow, then it disappeared.

"Wait, what just...huh?" Hunter felt something on his head. He looked up and saw a small yellow creature looking back at him.

"Pikachu."

"Erm. Hi."

The strange creature leapt off his head and landed in front of him. It had yellow skin with long black tipped ears, three brown bands on its back, large black eyes, bright red dots on its cheeks and a lightning bolt shaped tail.

Konohamaru and his friends were probably more confused than Hunter right now. They didn't know much about summoning jutsu but they knew enough to realise that this wasn't normal.

"Um, Konohamaru? Maybe we should just go and tell the jōnin where he is." said Udon.

"Yeah" agreed Moegi. "I mean, if he can do a summoning jutsu maybe we shouldn't-"

"Oh, come on!" Konohamaru cut her off before she could finish "He doesn't look that tough. Besides, all he summoned was that small yellow mouse thing! How dangerous can it be!?"

"Pika! Pika, Pikachu!"

"I think you made him mad." muttered Hunter.

"GET HIM!" Konohamaru charged at Hunter, his friends still weren't convinced this was a good idea but they followed him anyway.

"Pika...CHUUUUUUUUU!"

All three children were struck by a bolt of lightning that erupted from the mouse-like creature's body. When the flow of electricity stopped the three of them crashed to the ground, unconscious.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side." said Hunter. He walked over to the children and knelt down next to the one called Moegi. "Are they all right?"

"Pika, pika pi."

"If you say so. Come on, we'll take these guys back to Sarutobi."

"Pikachu?"

"Yes, Konohamaru too."

Pikachu gave Hunter an annoyed look "Pika! Pika pika pikachu!"

"I know he's rude, but still that's no reason to leave him out here."

Pikachu still didn't look happy but he nodded in agreement "Pika."

"Good, you grab Cornel Custer and I'll take these two. Wait, hang on." Hunter brought out his pen and proceeded to draw a small moustache with goatee on Konohamaru, a twirly moustache on Udon and a large curly moustache on Moegi.

"Ok, I'm done."

"Pika pikachu."

Hunter looked confused "What on earth is a jiggalypuff? Never mind, I don't want to know. Let's just find Sarutobi and give him his grandkid back."

Hunter picked up Moegi and Udon and slung them both over his shoulders. Pikachu grabbed hold of Konohamaru's leg and dragged him after Hunter.

_Back at in the Hokage's office_

Once the stop spell had worn off the first thing that everyone noticed was that Hunter was gone. Again. And once more he'd left another page of Kakashi's book, which said ninja was weeping over. The strange thing was that was all he'd done.

"No face art this time." noted Guy.

"It's certainly out of character." agreed Sarutobi "Why would he leave without taking the chance to humiliate us further?"

"The kid's completely insane, who knows what his reasons are!" said Anko, her distain for Hunter evident in her voice.

"I wouldn't call him insane." argued Kurenai "He's...unusual, yes. But he's definitely perusing a goal here in Konoha."

"Well, he's not here as an assassin." said Asuma "He's had plenty of chances to kill all of us and he's passed them all up in favour of his...humour."

"None of this makes sense!" declared Kakashi "First Hunter suddenly appears out of nowhere in the village. He has impossible jutsu and an unknown kekkei genkai, yet all he does with them is humiliate us. Then he goes to the forest of death, saves Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Anko, then he came back to embarrass us all over again. Shikamaru said that Hunter told him he was here hunting the 'nobodies', whoever or whatever they are. And then there's that device, whatever that was."

"Yes, it is quiet the mystery." agreed Sarutobi "Hunter may be gone for now but I suspect that he will resurface soon."

There was a puff of smoke as an ANBU ninja appeared "Lord Hokage. Hunter is approaching the tower, and he has Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru with him."

_Just outside the Hokage Tower._

As Hunter approached the entrance to the tower he was unsurprised to find the Hokage waiting for him at the entrance. He wasn't alone either, with him was Kakashi, Guy, Anko, Asuma, Kurenai and a whole bunch of ANBU ninjas. None of them had drawn their weapons yet but Hunter could tell that they weren't exactly glad to see him.

He carefully put Udon and Moegi down and said "I know it looks bad, but I can explain everything."

"Pika, Pika pi."

Hunter looked down at the electric mouse "Hm, out of time?"

"Pika."

"Well, thanks for your help Pikachu."

"Pikachu." There was a bright flash of light and Pikcahu disappeared. The only thing left was a summon charm that flew into Hunters hand.

"What was that?" asked Asuma.

"It looked like a summon, but I've never seen one quite like that." answered Kakashi.

"Just what did you do to the Hokage's grandson!" demanded one of the ANBU ninja.

"He started it." said Hunter with an offended, child like voice.

Konohamaru groaned and started to wake. He sat up, shook his head, then he noticed his grandfather.

"Hey Old Man. I caught him!" he declared.

Hunter looked down disbelievingly at the boy. "Not the brightest bulb on the tree are you." He looked back at Sarutobi "You two are definitely related, right?"

"What's that supposed to mean!" demanded Konohamaru.

Hunter sighed "Never mind."

That was when Udon and Moegi woke up. They took one look at Konohamaru and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?!" he demanded.

"Your...your face!" said Moegi through a fit of giggles.

Konohamaru looked over at a nearby window. The look on his face when he saw what Hunter had done was absolutely priceless, and it made his two friends laugh all the more.

"Will you two knock it off!" he yelled. "It's not funny. He's done it to you too!"

Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I just came by to drop off the three musketeers here. Now that's done I've got to get back to work."

"And what 'work' would that be?" asked Guy.

"What Hidden Village are you from Hunter!?" demanded Anko "The Stone? The Cloud?"

"None of the above. As far as I know."

"Your name is Hunter?" said Konoharmaru. "What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, you're one to talk. What kind of name is Konohamaru? Do you guys have some kind of allergy to names with less than three syllables!"

"Hunter." he looked over at Sarutobi. "Our questions still stand. Who are you really? And what is your purpose here?"

"Well, it all started a few days ago when..." everyone listened closely.

"STOPRA!" Hunter grinned as everyone present suddenly froze. He had to make up for leaving early last time. This was going to be his greatest work yet.

When time finally resumed for Sarutobi he realised that Hunter had frozen them all for the umpteenth time. The Hokage saw that his hat had been removed and placed on Konohamaru, who was admiring his reflection in a window.

All the ANBU ninjas had been assembled into a human pyramid that quickly fell apart, with everyone involved collapsing in a heap.

Guy and Kakashi and been arranged in a close embrace. The two rivals rapidly disentangled themselves and went red in the face.

Anko let out a screech as a bucket of ice cold water landed on her head.

Kurenai and Asuma had been left in the middle of what looked like a romantic dance move. They both blushed and quickly went back to standing normally.

And Hunter was, of course, standing close by and laughing his head off.

"I'm going to kill him!" growled Anko.

"You'll have to catch me first!" yelled Hunter as a black portal appeared around him. Anko jumped at him but she was too late. Hunter had already disappeared.

"ARRGG! I hate that kid!" roared Anko.

_Elsewhere in the village._

Hunter reappeared back in the alley behind Ichiraku's Ramen, still laughing to himself.

"Hahahah. I'm never going to get tired of messing with them. It's just so easy." He walked out of the alley, already planning his next big prank.

To keep from drawing any more attention he changed shape into his female disguise.

"Hey there!"

Hunter looked round and saw a young woman running up to him. She had brown hair, tied back in a pony tail but her most distinctive feature was the two red fang marks on her cheeks. 'Just like that Tsume woman.' thought Hunter 'Maybe they're related?'

"Hey" continued the woman once she'd reached Hunter. "Have you seen three dogs go by?"

Hunter shook 'her' head "Nope. Sorry."

The girl let out a heavy sigh "Typical. I let them out of my sight for five seconds and this happens. Mom is never going to let me hear the end of this."

"Your mom's not Tsume, is she?" asked Hunter.

"Hm. Yes she is. You've met her?"

Hunter nodded slowly, vividly recalling his encounter with Tsume and Kunomaru. "It was...an experience. Let's leave it at that."

"Yes I'm sure it was. My names Hana by the way. Hana Inuzuka."

"If Tsume's your mother, that means that Kiba's your brother right?" asked Hunter.

Hana looked surprised "Yes. You know my brother to?"

"Sort of. I saw him in the Chunin Exams."

"Oh, are you competing to be a chunin too?"

Hunter chuckled "Your mom asked the same thing. No I'm here for something else."

Just then three large dogs came running round the corner. They were all identical with grey fur on top and white underneath.

"There you three are!" Hana put her hands on her hips and stared down disapprovingly at the dogs. "I've been all over the Hidden Leaf looking for you three! Where were you all anyway."

Two of the dogs started yapping at Hanna, while another started sniffing Hunter. The dog looked up at 'her' curiously, then it barked at Hana.

"Something wrong?" asked Hana. The dog made a few more barking sounds. Hana took a step back from Hunter and the dogs started growling threateningly.

"He says there's something wrong with your sent. Who are you?" Hana demanded.

Hunter rolled his eyes "Rumbled by a dog of all things." He changed back into his male form.

Instantly Hana drew a kunai from her back pocket "You're Hunter!" she declared.

"The one and only."

One of the dogs barked a few times, causing the others to emit the canine equivalent of a laugh.

"What did you just call me fuzz ball!?" yelled Hunter.

That surprised Hana 'He can understand the dogs to. I thought only my clan could do that.'

The dog looked equally confused "Arf?"

"Yes, I can understand every word you bark. Call me that again and I'll tell every flea in the village to make you their personal feeding ground, got that!?"

The dog let out a frightened yelp and ran behind Hana.

Hunter gave Hana a bemused look "So I guess that word about me is finally starting to spread. Kakashi and Anko been talking about me behind my back huh?"

"The Hokage made sure at all the village's ninja know about you." said Hana, not lowering her guard. "You have powerful jutsu, a kekkei genkai, and an obnoxious personality."

"That's me in a nutshell. But I still think you guys made just made 'kekkei genkai' up. What does that mean anyway?"

"Quite playing stupid!"

"Who says I'm playing?" asked Hunter jokingly. 'Hm. Counting the pups it's four against one. And I still don't have enough magic for another stop spell yet. I really should learn not to spam those.'

Hana decided to make her move. "Alright triplets, let's go!"

Hunter jumped back, narrowly avoiding a kunai Hana threw at him. Two of the dogs attacked from either side. Hunter punched the one on the left and kicked the one on the right. The third dog leapt up at him and tried to bite his head off. He stopped it by grabbing hold of both its jaws, which were very close to his face.

"Seriously...take a breath mint."

He threw the dog aside, aiming it at Hana. She jumped over it and ran at Hunter, bringing out another kunai and throwing a few shuriken.

"Aerora!" A powerful shield of wind appeared around Hunter, blocking the shuriken. Hana halted her attack and leapt back to form a new strategy.

'An air shield! I'll need something more powerful to get past that.'

"That all you got dog lady!?" Hana gritted her teeth at Hunter's taunt. "'Cause you're really-cripes!" A windmill shuriken passed right by Hunter's face making him jump back.

Looking to his right he saw Kakashi and Guy standing a few feet away.

"Found you." said the sliver haired Jōnin.

"You have great youthful energy Hunter." said Guy "Even I, Might Guy, am impressed by you!" he gave Hunter a wide smile that seemed to 'ping'.

Hunter rubbed the back of his head "Er...thanks. I think." then he looked over at one of the dogs "Did you see that teeth thing too?"

'He hasn't used another time stop yet.' thought Kakashi. 'It must need more time to re-charge.'

"Guy, Hana. We have to take him down now before his time stop jutsu recharges." as Kakashi spoke he lifted his head band, revealing his red sharingan eye.

"Well, you guys better hurry up. It won't be long now." said Hunter, as he got into a battle stance.

"Alright triplets. let's try this again." The three dogs barked in agreement as Hana made several rapid hand signs, then yelled "Fang Rotating Fang!"

Hana and her dogs launched themselves and Hunter and began rolling at high speed in buzz saw like shapes.

"Aerora!"Hunter brought up his air shield just in time to block the four pronged attack. The ninja and her dogs spun against the shield for a few seconds before returning to normal.

Guy launched his own attack as the shield dissipated. Moving at high speed he punched Hunter right in the gut, sending him flying further down the street.

"Ok." grumbled Hunter as he got back up "I definitely felt that."

"My turn." Kakashi ran towards Hunter, throwing a kunai that Hunter easily deflected.

The two exchanged a few blows before Hunter blocked one of Kakashi's punches and managed to hit him in the chest. Hunter was surprised when Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a damaged log. Sensing that the jōnin had reappeared behind him Hunter spun round, blocking another strike from Kakashi.

As Guy observed the fight it became more and more apparent to him that something was wrong.

His concerned look drew Hana's attention. "Guy, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Kakashi's sharingan should be letting him read Hunter's movements. Except it's not. I don't know how he's doing it but Hunter is negating the sharingan."

Hunter jumped over Kakashi, then he spun round as his chains materialised. Kakashi only just avoided being struck by the hooks, which ended up breaking through a wall.

"Hana. You and the Harimaru brothers must go and find the other jōnin. Tell them where Hunter is. We'll hold him here." said Guy.

Hana nodded. "Right. You three heard him. Spread out!" the dogs all ran off in separate directions, then Hana left too, heading towards the Hokage's Tower.

Hunter dodged another punch, then he jumped over towards Guy. "Hey, where'd Hana go?"

"She's gone to bring the other jōnin." answered Guy, as he got into a combat stance. "There will be no escape for you this time."

"Did she leave her number?" asked Hunter, hopefully. He jumped to the side to avoid a kick from Guy. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

Hunter swung his left chain at Guy, who easily dodged it by leaping over it. Hunter's chain changed direction of its own accord and wrapped around a shocked Guy's arm.

"Now, get over-oofff!" Hunter had been about to pull Guy towards him but he'd let his guard down and Kakashi had taken the opportunity to punch Hunter in the face.

Hunter was thrown sideways, the chain around Guy unwrapped and flew back to him as he landed.

"Well, this kid certainly is challenging." said Guy. "It looked like you were having trouble keeping up Kakashi."

"Hmph. Hunter's still not down yet. We just need to hold him here a little longer."

As they watched Hunter started to get back up. A black aura had covered his body with dark wisps that coiled upwards. His eyes had taken on a yellow glow and Kakashi felt like they were somehow seeing into him.

"That black stuff. What is that?" asked Guy.

"No idea. But it can't be anything good."

Hunter shot forwards and before Guy could react Hunter punched him in the gut. Guy was thrown backwards into a shop window which shattered on impact.

Kakashi brought out another kunai and slashed at Hunter but he ducked under Kakashi's arm and kicked upwards. The force of the kick launched Kakashi into the air. Hunter jumped up after him, landing another mid air kick, and another, and another. Then he vanished.

Kakashi briefly wondered where he'd gone, then he felt Hunter's chains wrapping around his torso. Looking down, he saw that Hunter was back on the ground, still covered in the black aura. He pulled on the chains, sending Kakashi crashing into the ground.

Before Kakashi had a chance to get up Hunter was kneeling down next to where he lay, pulling back his arm and preparing to deliver a claw like strike to Kakashi's heart.

Hunter's arm shot forwards. Then his other arm grabbed it, stopping his own attack just short of Kakashi's chest.

This was not what Kakashi had been expecting to say the least. Hunter's chains suddenly vanished, allowing Kakashi to get away. Guy climbed out of the shop window and ran over to his rival's side.

"Kakashi. You alright? What's happening to him?"

Hunter's black aura became more and more violent. "What...why did I..."

'Looks like his powers do have a downside' thought Kakashi. "Hunter?"

Hunter looked over at the two jōnin. "Who?...Do I...know you -ARRGHH!" Hunter doubled over, clutched at his head, then he fell unconscious. A large dark portal appeared below him and Hunter slowly sank into it. In seconds he was gone and the portal vanished.

Guy and Kakshi just stared at the spot where Hunter had been. Then the other ninjas, along with Hana and her dogs, showed up.

"Kakashi, we're here!" said Anko, then she looked around. "Where's Hunter?"

"He's gone." answered Guy.

"This means I'm never going to get my book back." groaned Kakashi

* * *

Well, look's like Hunter's powers have drawbacks after all.

If anyone has any character's they'd like to see as summons, let me know and I'll see what I can do. No promises though.

Tune in next time for more magic, mayhem and a fight between Twilight Thorn and Hiashi Hyuga. (Spoiler: it doesn't end well for Hiashi)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I'm Riku, this is Naminé and DiZ"

"Hunter of the Dark"

"Who are you!?"

"What are you hunting?"

"Naruto."

**"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!"**

"I am an avenger"

"I think we've got a hero here"

"My name..."

** "THIS THING IS NOT WHAT IT APPEARS"**

"Lord Orochimaru."

"...is Twilight Thorn"

Hunter bolted upright. He didn't know how long he'd been out or what had happened to him, but he was clearly not in the Hidden Leaf anymore. He was in a side street of a city, but it wasn't an ordinary city. All the buildings were black in colour with windows that shone with a dull yellow light. The road he was standing on was made from black and dark blue stones. The strangest thing though was how quiet it was. There were no normal city sounds like crowds talking or car horns blaring. There wasn't even any wind.

"Hello!?"

_"Hello!?"_

_"__Hello!?"_

_"Hello!?"_

The only reply Hunter got was his own voice echoed back at him by the buildings.

"Snap." Hunter murmured. With no obvious way to go Hunter started walking, hoping that he'd find something, anything that told him where he was. As he walked through the black city his thoughts turned to his fight with Kakashi and Guy.

He'd been about a second away from turning Kakashi into a Heartless. 'What if I lose control again? What if next time I don't stop myself?'

Eventually Hunter emerged from a side street on to a large plaza. At the far end was a colossal skyscraper that towered over the others. Up at the top were several large TV monitors that showed nothing but static. Hunter didn't know why but he felt drawn to the skyscraper. He walked towards it, tilting his head back so he could still see the screens.

One of the monitors crackled into life. It showed Naminé in the white room, drawing in her sketch book. The image changed to Riku, DiZ and Naminé together outside the Old Mansion.

'Wait a minute' thought Hunter 'I recognise this...these are places I've been. These are my memories!'

The other screens came to life and began to play more of Hunter's memories. One showed the fight between him and the three sound ninja. Another was of his first meeting with Orochimaru. For several minutes the screens continues to flicker between different memories, then they all change to the same image.

On the screens was a woman that Hunter had never seen before. She had blue hair, strange clothes and she was armed with a...

The screens all turned to static.

"What was that?" Hunter wondered aloud. "I don't remember that woman. It must have been from before I met Naminé. When I was still..."

Hunter's shoulders slumped. He'd never thought about the time he'd spent as a Hunter of the Dark. Who knew how many lives he'd ruined, or how many people he'd turned into Heartless.

Hunter turned to leave, then he stopped. The once empty plaza was now filled with Heartless. They were all identical, humanoid in appearance but with no mouth, nose or ears. Their bodies were jet black in colour with long crooked antenna that fell down over their shoulders and bright, almost glowing, yellow eyes.

None of them made any aggressive moves, they just stood there, staring at Hunter and he stared right back. He slowly raised his right hand and waved at them. They didn't react.

Hunter carefully walked towards the assembled mass of Heartless. As he approached they parted to let him pass between them, never taking their eyes off him.

When Hunter reached the middle of the crowd he stopped and looked around. He was now standing in the centre of a horde of Heartless and yet he felt strangely...at home.

Hunter shook his head. He needed to get out of here, away from this world. He closed his eyes and focused on the Elemental Nations. A black portal appeared around him and he was gone.

The Heartless stayed for a moment, then they all disappeared into the shadows.

Once more the black city was empty.

_Back in the Hidden Leaf_

The compound of the Hyūga clan was one of the most secure places in the entire village. Throughout the years many enemies had tried to steal the secrets of the clans kekkei genkai, the Byakugan, and while some had come close, they had all failed.

The current head of the Hyūga family was Hiashi Hyūga, and he was less than pleased to discover that someone had broken into his clans secret library, which contained knowledge of not just the Byakugan but all his clans secret jutsu and techniques.

He had been in the middle of a training exercise with his youngest daughter, Hanabi, when he'd been informed that someone had tripped the library's security seals. So Hiashi was now marching into the library, along with two guards from the branch family, to find out just who was trying to steal his clans secrets this time. Needless to say, he wasn't in the best of moods right now.

The Hyūga clans library consists of two levels. The ground floor contains information that is freely available to all members of the clan and some trusted outsiders. Below that is the secret library where only certain members of the clans main family are allowed due to all the sensitive and valuable information stored therein.

When Hiashi entered the underground library he had expected to find an enemy ninja gathering up as many scrolls as he could. What he found instead was Hunter, standing just a few feet away. Hiashi recognised him instantly from the description that he Hokage had given, black hair and cloths. The only difference was that he had a blue scarf now.

The boy didn't seem to notice Hiashi's arrival as he picked up a scroll, opened it and...

"No." he tossed the scroll aside and moved on to the next one.

Looking at the floor Hiashi could see that Hunter had gone through quite a few scrolls. The thought of someone stealing his clans secrets was bad enough, but seeing Hunter treat them like disposable garbage was more than his pride could stand.

"Hunter!" Hiashi's voice was thick with anger, but Hunter ignored him and moved on to a new scroll.

"No." the scroll joined the others on the floor.

Hiashi signalled the guard on his left to attack. The man nodded and ran at Hunter, jamming out his palm to strike at the intruder.

Without looking away from the scroll he was holding Hunter grabbed the man's arm, then he spun round so he was now behind the guard, pulling the man's arm with him. He dropped the scroll and used his free hand to deliver a chop to the guards outstretched arm. Hiashi heard a loud snap as the bone broke and saw the arm bend in a way it wasn't supposed to. Hunter's leg snapped out, making contact with the guards back and sending him flying.

The man crashed face first into the back wall, then slumped to the ground. He didn't get back up.

Hunter selected another scroll. "No."

Hiashi signalled to the other guard. This man was far more cautious than the last. He started approaching Hunter, already scanning him for weak points. Hunter raised his right arm. Before the guard could move four black and white lines appeared around the boy's forearm and shot forwards. They wrapped themselves around the Hyūga guard then they yanked him towards Hunter.

He crashed into Hunter's outstretched fist, breaking several ribs. As the man started to fall Hunter seized hold of him and slammed him into the ground with enough force to brake the wooden floor.

Then he moved on to the next scroll "No."

Hiashi had had enough. He charged at Hunter, channelling chakra into his palms. He'd barely gone a few steps when the boy's scarf sprang to life, the loose ends wrapping around the clan head's arms and legs, holding him in place. "Will you please stop." said Hunter in an emotionless voice "You're distracting me."

"The secrets of the Hyūga clan don't belong to you Hunter!" yelled Hiashi. "More guards will be waiting for you outside, you can't escape this time!"

Hunter turned his head so he was now looking at Hiashi. The head of the Hyūga clan had seen many ninja who hid their emotions but this was different. It was like there was nothing inside Hunter at all.

The scarf tossed Hiashi aside and Hunter went back to reading, then throwing scrolls. As soon as Hiashi's feet touched the ground he charged at Hunter again, hoping to catch him unawares. No such luck. Hunter spun round and batted Hiashi's palm away, then he delivered a punch to the clan head's chest. The blow lifted Hiashi off the ground but before he could go far Hunter grabbed his shirt and slammed his knee into the man's gut, winding him.

"I was told that your clan were powerful warriors." Hunter's scarf wrapped around Hiashi again, lifting him up off the floor. "It appears I was misinformed." Hunter picked up the last remaining scroll. "No. I've been wasting my time."

Hunter dropped Hiashi and began to walk away.

"You'll pay for this Hunter!" spat Hiashi as he struggled to his feet. "I won't forget what you've done here!"

"Good. It's nice to know someone will remember." a black portal appeared in the wall that Hunter was heading for. "And stop calling me Hunter. My name is Thorn." He walked through the portal and was gone.

_Hokage Tower. A short time later._

The Hokage first heard of Hunter's return he'd been locked in an epic battle with his arch foe. Paperwork. He was almost glad for the interruption. His first action was to summon any ninja above genin rank who'd ever come into contact with Hunter. Soon everyone was assembled in one of the tower's meeting rooms, including Hiashi Hyūga. Well, almost everyone.

"Where is Kakashi?" asked Sarutobi.

"I'm not sure. He's probably still training Sasuke for the exam finals." answered Guy.

"Then we'll have to start without him. You've all probably heard by now that the Hyūga clan's archives were broken into this morning."

"So who was it?" asked Tsume Inuzuka. "The Hidden Cloud again?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "No. The culprit was Hunter."

That piece of news set off murmurs around the room.

"So, he's back then." growled Tsume. "I thought that brat died fighting Kakashi and Guy."

"Well, not exactly." admitted Guy "It was more like he...disappeared."

"Whatever the circumstances he has returned, however he is not the same." the Hokage looked over at Hiashi, who had a load of bandages covering his chest, forehead and right arm. The hospital had wanted him to stay longer but the Hyūga clan had an image to maintain. The Hyūga elder stood and told the assembled shinobi everything that transpired in the library.

"Focused. Brutal. Emotionless. That doesn't sound like the Hunter we all met." muttered Anko.

"He sounds like a totally different person." agreed Asuma "I think I preferred him as an annoying prankster."

"How could he have changed so much in such a short space of time?" asked Guy.

"It's not just his personality that's changed." said Kurenai. "He has new powers and a new name. Thorn. Could that be his real name? And how exactly did this change from Hunter to Thorn come about?"

"It seems every time Hunter appears he leaves us with more questions." sighed Sarutobi. "Still, this latest incident is an attack on the Hidden Leaf. We must find him before he causes more harm."

_Elsewhere in the village_

A black portal appeared on the rooftops of the village and Hunter stepped out.

"That actually worked!" he almost yelled with joy. "Ok...now what do I do? Hmmmm."

*Ring ring.*

Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Hello?"

"Hunter." DiZ's voice came out of the phone's speaker. "Where have you been!? I've been trying to contact you for almost three weeks now."

"Three weeks!" Hunter yelled in surprise.

"Yes. What happened to you?"

Hunter quickly summed up the events of his fight with Kakashi and Guy and his arrival in the black city.

"That city sounds like a Heartless world, somewhere close to the Dark Realm. You must have transported yourself there by accident." said DiZ.

"Well it defiantly wasn't a planned vacation." muttered Hunter.

"You must strive to keep your instincts in check. If you lose control you may well revert back to the Hunter of the Dark."

"Tell me something I don't know! Do you have any proper advice?"

There was a moment's pause. "Nothing that you'd heed. For now continue searching for the nobodies. Contact me again when you have something to report."

"Define 'somethi-'...DiZ...DiZ... He hung up on me again!"

Hunter put his phone away and change into a perfect copy of Naruto, right down to the hideous orange outfit. He covertly got down from the roof and onto the main street. As he walked he passed by the Ichiraku's Ramen building and was briefly haunted by a flash back of his near miss with Tsume and the other ninjas.

He was about to walk on when a thought suddenly struck him. In all the time since he'd arrived here he had never eaten or drank, yet he was neither thirsty nor hungry. This was concerning to say the least. Hunter went into the ramen bar, planning to order some food, until he realised he had no money.

"Ah, Naruto!" it was the owner of the restaurant that had spoken, the same middle aged jovial man he'd seen last time. "Here, have a bowl of ramen on the house. You've got a big day tomorrow."

"Um. Thanks." said Hunter. He sat down and the girl with brown hair, whose name was Ayame, brought him a steaming bowl of ramen.

"Careful." she warned "It's hot."

Hunter picked up a pair of chopsticks and used them to grab one of the pieces of meat floating in the bowl. Despite Ayame's warning it wasn't hot. In fact it had no taste at all, he might as well have been eating cardboard. Both Ayame and her father, Teuchi noticed 'Naruto's' disappointed expression. Normal this would have been suspicious but with the chunin exam finals tomorrow they just put his reaction down to nerves.

Hunter was about to leave when he heard some of the other customers talking. Apart from him, Ayame and Teuchi there were three other people sitting at the bar. The closest was a man with blond hair that was spiky on top and ended in a long ponytail. Next to him was a thin man who had two scars on the right side of his face, black hair that he wore in a pineapple like style and a goatee beard. The last man was a good deal larger than the other two. he had red hair and purple marks on his cheeks.

All three were about middle aged and all obviously ninjas.

"You heard?" asked the blond one. "Someone broke into the Hyūga clan's library this morning."

"What? No way, I thought they had that place locked up tight after what happened with the Cloud." replied the larger ninja.

The blond shrugged "That's what I heard. Apparently whoever did it got caught by Hiashi Hyūga."

"Can't imagine that ended well for him." said the one with black hair, dismissively. He looked like he was about to fall asleep.

"Ah, but that's the interesting part Shikaku. The rumour is Hiashi lost. Quite badly to."

That caught Shikaku's attention "What? Really? That's troublesome."

"Yeah. I know one of the doctors from the village hospital and he told me that two Hyūga's were hospitalised and Hiashi was treated for minor injuries."

"Do they know who did it?" asked the red head.

"No. The Hyūga clan isn't talking, but some people are saying it's that 'Hunter' guy."

"What!" yelled Hunter. The three ninjas looked over at him. "That's impossible!"

"And how would you know that Naruto?" asked the blond ninja.

"Because I'm Hunter." he shape shifted back to his true form. The ninjas almost fell off their seat's in surprise. "And I only got back here five minutes ago so how could I have...Thorn."

The three ninjas had gotten back up and were now in a battle formation.

"Alright, tell me where this 'Hyūga clan library' is. NOW!" Hunter demanded.

"Not a chance." said the blond. "Whatever you're up to Hunter, it ends here. Battle formation! Ino!"

"Shika!"

"Chō!"

Hunter's chains materialised by his side. "Bring it!"

_Outside the ramen bar_

Anko was not enjoying her latest assignment. Once the meeting with the Hokage was over he'd ordered them all to patrol the village for any sign of Hunter and send word to him when they found him. This was all part of the Hokage's plan to get around Hunter's time stop jutsu and while the idea of finally getting one over on that obnoxious brat was grand, she still had to find him first.

Anko was about to pass by Ichiraku's Ramen when something came flying out of the shop and crashed into the ground in front of her.

It took her a moment to recognise that something as Chōza Akimichi. Before she had time to ask what the hell was going on someone else shot out of the ramen bar with a cry of "Aga Saga!"and landed right on top of the plus sized ninja.

It was Hunter. "If you like eating so much you can dine on my...hi Anko!"

Anko blinked several times. Hunter seemed normal, well normal by his standards anyway, not at all like the emotionless warrior that Hiashi had described.

Two more ninjas emerged from Ichiraku's Ramen, Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka. Chōza landed a punch on Hunter while he was distracted, knocking him to the ground.

Hunter was now surrounded by all three members of Ino-Shika-Chō, but despite that he didn't seem worried. If anything he looked like he was having fun.

Shikaku made several hand signs. "Shadow possession jutsu." Shikaku's shadow grew longer until it reached Hunter's feet. For those who don't know, the Nara clan's shadow possession jutsu is a technique that forces you opponent to mirror your movements, like a shadow. Of course it's probably not the best thing to use on someone who can control darkness.

"Got you now!"

Hunter smirked, then he punched himself in the face, with Shikaku mirroring his movements.

"Who's got who?" asked Hunter, sounding very self satisfied.

He side stepped a strike from Chōza's bō staff and Shikaku unwillingly copied him. Struck by inspiration Hunter began dancing his own interpretation of _Thriller _while avoiding Chōza and Inoichi.

"Hahaha. This is FANTASTIC!" Hunter twirled round to avoid four snakes that shot out from Anko's sleeve.

"Stop that!" demanded Shikaku.

"No, it's too funny." Hunter had to duck to avoid Chōza again. Shikaku used the brief opportunity to end the jutsu.

"Kill joy." Hunter jumped onto Chōza's bō then kicked him in the face.

The Akimichi clan head reeled back. "Argh! Let's see you get out of this. Expansion jutsu!" Chōza channelled his chakra into his left arm causing it to rapidly expand to the point where he was able to grab Hunter in his hand.

"Inoichi! Now!"

The blond hair ninja nodded and began making hand signs. "Mind transfer jutsu!" Unseen by everyone else Inoichi's mind left his body as he fired his spirit at Hunter.

Acting on their own, Hunter's chain's rose up off the ground and slammed into Chōza's chest, knocking him off his feet and forcing him to release his hold on Hunter. The boy turned to face Inoichi and jammed out his arm, grabbing hold of the man's spirit before it could enter his body. This would have been impossible for a human but Hunter was a Heartless. The same rules don't apply.

"Your soul is mine." said Hunter. He punched Inoichi's spirit in the gut, the damage translating to his physical body, then threw him back into his own body. Once his soul was back Inoichi doubled over in pain.

Everyone stared at him in shock.

"How...how did he do that?" asked Chōza, still not quite able to believe what he'd just seen.

Anko gritted her teeth "No idea." Inwardly she thought 'Just when I thought he'd run out of tricks he comes up with something new.'

"He has to have some weakness." said Shikaku.

Hunter let out a tired sigh. "Look people, we all know how this will end. We exchange some insults, then you attack me again and I beat the crap out of you all. This time can we...just..."

What happened next was possibly the weirdest thing Hunter had seen yet. A large cat with brown fur and a red ribbon tied round it's ear ran out between the ninjas and Hunter. It stopped and tried to remove its ribbon by scratching at it with its back legs.

"Tora!"

The cat let out a frighten meow and ran off.

The source of the voice was a woman who looked to be in her forties, and from all the makeup and jewellery she was wearing, she was some kind of noble. She ran past the ninjas and Hunter, apparently not noticing any of them as she chased after her cat.

"Tooooraaaa! come back my kitty kitty!" she had a voice that could curdle fresh milk.

The cat ran faster and took a left at the end of the road, with its owner not far behind.

The entire group just stared after them, open mouthed.

The silence was broken by Hunter "What the flying fish was that!?"

With Hunter distracted Anko signalled the other to attack. They all got about five steps before...

"STOP!"

The group halted as Hunters spell caught them. Then he noticed the expressions frozen on Anko's face.

"Just what are you smiling about?"

He didn't have to wait long for the answer "Hello again Hunter."

He recognised the voice of Sarutobi, who was standing right behind him. He slowly turned round and sure enough the Hokage was directly behind him.

"Ah, I get it. You hung back and waited while Anko got me to use stop. Clever."

Sarutobi chuckled "I wasn't called the 'God of Shinobi' for nothing, Hunter."

"So, what now? Fight time?" asked Hunter, nervously.

"That depends on you. I still have questions for you Hunter."

Hunter folded his arms "You'll never get me to talk copper!"

The stop spell on Anko and the others wore off. They halted their attack, quickly took in the new situation and stood their ground.

Anko smirked at Hunter. "Final pulled one over on you."

"Oh don't pat yourself on the back yet. I've still got enough go-go left for one more stop." Anko's smug expression vanished instantly. "Didn't know that. Did ya. Now say good-"

"What is your name?" asked the Hokage.

Hunter puffed out his chest and pointed at Sarutobi "I am the terror that flaps in the ni-"

"You don't know the answer. Do you."

All the humour drained right out of Hunter.

"That's why you keep giving these aliases." Sarutobi continued "It's all an attempt to cover the truth. You can't remember your own name."

Hunter's silence was all the answer he needed.

"And the cause of your amnesia. It has something to do with the powers you use. Correct?"

"It's more complicated than that." muttered Hunter. "And the less you all know, the better. You'll all be safer if you just..." Hunter turned round and looked down at the other end of the street. Everyone else followed his gaze.

"So, we meet again." said Hunter.

Standing just a few feet away was none other than Naruto Uzumaki. "What the...Hunter! What are you doing here!?" he asked in surprise.

"Well, I was having lunch. Things kinda spiralled from there."

"Naruto! Leave now. Hunter is dangerous!" yelled the Hokage.

"Ah, come on Ji-ji, he's not that tough. I could beat him easily. Believe it!" declared Naruto.

Hunter face palmed. "Heart of a lion. Brain of a turnip."

"Hey! I heard that!" yelled Naruto. He brought his hands together and yelled out "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

With a great plume of smoke roughly fifty copies of Naruto appeared.

"Not this time!" Hunter raised both his arms, which began to glow with a dark aura. A storm of dark bolts erupted from Hunter's palms. In a matter of moments Naruto's clone army was wiped out, leaving only the original left.

Naruto laughed nervously "Haha...Ut-oh."

Sarutobi looked concerned. 'Even after all this Hunter is still holding back.' he thought.

"Alright Naruto, you wanna play?" Hunter's eyes changed to glowing yellow. "Let's play!"

Hunter surged forwards, pulling back his arm to punch Naruto. Without realising what he was doing Hunter's hand opened up just before his blow hit and passed into Naruto's chest.

He had just enough time to say "Oh bol-" and then the world faded away, only to be replaced by the dark stone sewer of Naruto's subconscious mind.

"There are times I hate being like this."

Looking round he saw no sign of the Nine Tailed Fox (aka, the great orange fuzz ball) or Naruto for that matter. The only thing of interest was a wooden door set in the wall that was labelled 'Memories'.

"Interesting." Hunter opened the door and stepped into a medium sized room that was full of metal filing cabinets. He reached for the nearest one and opened the top draw. Inside it was unsurprisingly full of paper files. Hunter picked one up and opened it.

The inside of the file was...well the best way to describe it is like a TV screen that showed images from Naruto's early life, his time in the village orphanage, how he grew up with only a handful of friends, how none of the grownups in the village seemed to even acknowledge his existence.

Hunter close the file and put it back. "That was...I don't even know what to say." he moved on to another cabinet and took out a new file. This time the memoires were a little happier, he saw Naruto's first days in the ninja academy, his budding friendship with his teacher Iruka and his first taste of ramen.

"So that's what ramen tastes like. Not bad."

The finally memory in that file was of how Naruto accidentally ended up kissing Sasuke.

"Bahahahaha! Oh I am sooooo going to use this one against him later."

_Meanwhile, back in the real world_

"It's no use, he won't budge!" insisted Chōza as he, Inoichi and Shikaku tried to pull Hunter away from Naruto.

The two were seemingly frozen in place with their eyes closed and Hunter's hand phased inside Naruto's chest. It was a disturbing sight to say the least. So far any attempt to separate them had failed and Sarutobi was starting to really worry.

"Keep trying." ordered the Hokage "Who knows what Hunter is doing to Naruto!"

"Alright, on three" said Inoichi "One...two..."

_Back in Naruto's mind_

Naruto was walking through his mind-scape looking for...well, anything when he saw a giggling Hunter emerge from a door in the wall.

"You! What's so funny!?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing." said Hunter, stifling a laugh.

Naruto clenched his fists "Look, I don't know how you got in my mind again and I don't care. Just get out!"

Hunter raised his hands in mock surrender "Fine, fine. I've had my fun."

Naruto really didn't like the sound of that.

"Terminating connection." the dark sewer faded away to be replaced by...

_Back in reality_

"...three!"

Hunter's connection to Naruto ended at the same time the ninja trio tried to pull him away. The result was Inocihi falling to the floor, followed by Shikiau who landed on him and then Chōza who fell back onto both of them.

Hunter landed in front of the pile of ninjas but he was back on his feet just in time to cast a spell.

"STOPRA!"

Everyone 'stopped'.

"Sooooo. What to do with all of you. Oh...Oh, hohoho. Perrrrrfect."

Hunter ran back into the ramen bar and took all of the stools outside, along with Inoichi, Shikaku and Chōza's food.

As he worked Hunter started singing is own version of an old classic "Oooh I'm a mean one...Mister Hunter."

He put one stool down and arranged the other three around it.

"I really am a heel."

He sat the ninja trio down on the stools so they were all facing the centre stool. Then he brought out a large red table cloth and placed it over the middle stool, while tucking the ends into the men's shirts and pulling their head bands down over their eyes.

"I'm as cuddly as a cactus. I'm as charming as an eel. Mister Huuuunter."

Hunter put the bowls of food down on the cloth covered middle stool.

"I'm a bad banana with a...greasy black peeeeel."

That just left Sarutobi, Anko and Naruto to deal with.

"Oh you're a monster. Mister Hunter."

Searching Anko's pockets he found her supply of ninja wire.

"My heart's an empty hole."

He tied one end around Anko's partially outstretched arm, wrapped it a few times around Naruto's legs then around the Hokage's waist and the end around Anko's legs.

"My bran is full of spiders. I've got garlic in my soul. Mister Huuuunter."

With just seconds until time resumed Hunter jumped up onto a roof of a nearby building to get the best view of the show.

"I wouldn't touch me with a...Thirty-nine and a half foot pooolllle."

Time resumed.

Inocihi, Shikaku and Chōza jumped up from their seats, causing their bowls of food to fly upwards and land on their heads, covering them with food. As Anko's fist started moving again the wire around Naruto's legs tightened, causing him to fall forwards which made the wire around Sarutobi pull him over, leading to the wire around Anko's legs pulling her backwards.

"The work of a master if I do say so myself." said Hunter.

"Arrgh! Just what do you want!?" demanded Naruto as he jumped back up.

"Alright, I'll tell you. My plan is to start a war between all the ninja villages." everyone listened intently. "Then, I will use this war as leverage to steal the Hidden Leaf's pretty dam tasty ramen!"

The only one who still thought he was serious was, of course, Naruto. "That's got to be the most evil plan EVER! You'll never get away with it, I'll protect the ramen from you. Believe it!"

Hunter let out a mock evil laugh. "Mwahahah! Mark my words Naruto. The damned ramen will be mine!"

Then his disappeared into a black portal, still laughing maniacally.

"Errrmph! That fiend. We can't let him take the ramen!" declared Naruto.

"I think you'll find he was joking, Naruto." said Sarutobi.

The young ninja went red with embarrassment. "Oh...hehehe. I knew that."

_On a roof top not far away._

Hunter reappeared and took stock of his surroundings. One of the things he noticed was a large banner that read 'Chunin Exam finals tomorrow!'.

"Excellent. No point in going to that whatsit clan library now. Thorn will be long gone. I'll just catch up on some beauty sleep, watch the exam finals and round off the day by hunting nobodies. Awesome!"

Hunter laid down where he was, made himself as comfortable as he could, looked up at the sky and waited to fall asleep.

_A few hours later_

"I'll fall asleep any second now."

_A few more hours later_

"Any second."

_WAAAAY more hours later_

"One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep..."

_Ninety-seven sheep later_

"Ninety-eight sheep. Ninety-nine sheep...oh snap."

The sun had gone down long ago and while Hunter didn't know what time it was he was pretty sure it was gone midnight.

He let out a grunt of frustration "I know you two are there. Stop hiding and get out here!"

Two figures suddenly appeared on the other side of the roof. Hunter got up and stretched his limbs.

"Well now. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting more leaf ninja. Not you two."

He turned and faced the two ninjas. Kankuro and Temari.

"Still, someone had to find me. Eventually."

_Konoha Strict Correctional Facility._

Mizuki was languishing in the same cell that he'd been in ever since Naruto had beaten him. The plan had been perfect, all he had to do was trick Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Seals, kill him and take the scroll to Orochimaru. And in return the snake Sanin would have made him even more powerful than ever. Needless to say, the plan hadn't worked, and after Naruto and his clones had beaten him to a bloody pulp he'd been thrown in the villages most secure prison.

But Mizuki hadn't given up. He'd get revenge on Naruto and Iruka and the whole blasted village. All he had to do was wait and-

CLANG

Mizuki looked up in surprise and the unexpected noise. Sticking out between the cell door and the wall was a pointed bit of thin blue fabric. Mizuki barely had time to register this when another blue point smashed through on the other side. Two more points followed underneath the last two. The spear like blue lines curled inwards then the solid metal door was ripped from its hinges and cast aside.

Someone stepped into the cell. It was a young man with spiky black hair, wearing a blue scarf and black cloths with a white symbol on his shirt. Twilight Thorn had wasted the past few days trying to locate a vital piece of information. He'd started with the Hyūga clan and had been caught by Hiashi Hyūga. He'd been far more careful since then. After covertly raiding several clan libraries and finding nothing of real value he'd opted for a more direct method of information gathering.

"Wow, a visitor." said Mizuki, trying his best to sound cool. "I get so few these days. But I take it this isn't a social call Mr..."

"My name is Thorn."

"Short, sharp and to the point." joked Mizuki. Thorn didn't laugh. "I take it you know who I am?"

"Mizuki. Former Hidden Leaf shinobi. Declared a rouge ninja and criminal after a failed attempt to steal the Scroll of Seals. You have a lust for power that stems from an inferiority complex, though in truth it's more of a fact."

That got Mizuki angry "Why you ignorant cocky little-"

"What's going on here!?"

Mizuki was cut off by the sound of a prison guard happening across Thorn. Mizuki saw an opportunity. While The guard fought with Thorn he would slip past them both and escape. That was when Thorn's scarf shot out and wrapped around the guard's neck. Thorn didn't turn round, he just kept staring at Mizuki. The scarf's tendril twisted, snapping the ninja's neck. The man's body dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

Thorn advanced on Mizuki, who retreated into a corner. "I'm here because you may have something I want. An answer to a question. Answer truthfully and I will release you from this prison."

"W-w-what question?" stammered Mizuki.

"Who is Naruto Uzumaki's mother?"

Mizuki was so taken aback by the question he almost forgot that Thorn had just killed someone. "What?...Um, well nothing was ever officially said but the only other Uzumaki in this village was Kushina Uzumaki."

"Kushina." Thorn repeated.

"Yeah. She used to be a ninja in the Hidden Leaf but then she got herself killed in the Nine Tails attack."

Thorn seemed to ignore Mizuki "So, Kushina was his mother and his father was-"

"Before you ask, no I don't know who the brats father is. Knowing Kushina, it could be any man in the village."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a little "Kushina was superior to you in every way. And I already know who Naruto's father was. I have all I need from you."

"Right, well, it's been nice knowing ya."

Mizuki tried to leave but Thorn blocked his path. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Mizuki felt something clamp around his ankle. Looking down he saw with horror that that something was an inky black hand, belonging to a creature with bright yellow eyes that was slowly rising up from the shadows. More creatures started to emerge from the dark to restrain the panicking Mizuki.

"Hey! What are these things!?... I answered your question. You said you'd let me go!"

"No, I believe that my exact words were 'I will release you from this prison'. I never specified 'how' I would release you."

Thorn turned and left, a new objective already clear in his mind. Find more information on Kushina Uzumaki. If she had been a ninja then the village's main records would be the best place to start.

"Wait! You can't do this to me!"

Thorn didn't stop walking "Mizuki, if you dare to have dreams of power, you will be consumed by them."

Mizuki continued to futilely struggle against the Heartless. There were four of them now, one holding each limb, then a fifth one came out of the wall behind him and grabbed hold of his head. A sixth Neo Shadow rose up in front of him and slowly drew closer.

"No! Get away from me!" the monster didn't hear him. It got closer and closer until it's face was centimetres from Mizuki's. It held his gaze for a moment, then it looked down at the man's chest. It backed away and drew it's arm back.

"No! No,no,no,no NOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

* * *

Well, that's the end of him. Can't say I'm too broken up about killing Mizuki off.

Next chapter; The Sand Siblings give Hunter an 'enticing' offer.

'Till next time.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Hunter looked at the two sand siblings. While they weren't particularly powerful they were still dangerous and highly skilled. Temari was armed with the giant fan, which was currently strapped to her back, and Kankurō had that creepy looking puppet cocooned in bandages next to him.

"Now, I don't mean to be rude...Ah who am I kidding. I do mean to be rude. Why are you here and what do you want!?"

"Well, hello to you to Hunter." said Kankurō. "You've caused quite the stir around here. All we ever seem to here is 'Hunter' this and 'Hunter' that."

"And what we've heard is interesting." said Temari "If even half of it is true." she put a particular emphasis on the 'if' part.

Hunter looked offended "You doubt the power of the Great Gazzo!?"

The sand siblings both sweat-dropped.

"We're here to extend an offer from the Kazekage." Temari continued "Someone with your...talents would be very much appreciated in the Hidden Sand Village. Your time stop jutsu in particular is invaluable. Who knows. I might just take you up on that dinner offer."

"I take it this is an offer I can't refuse. Right?"

"Pretty much." answered Kankurō "Any more questions?"

"Just one. Where's the other guy? You know, porcelain like skin, red hair, heavy use of masquera?"

That wiped the smiles off the sand sibling's faces. "That's not your concern." said Temari.

"You don't know where he is, do you?" now they both looked somewhere between nervous and angry. "Unbelievable. A murderous psychopath with a monster inside and you two nimrods let him out of your sight!?"

That stunned the pair of them. "You know about the..." Kankurō stopped himself before he could finish.

A smug smile spread across Hunter's face "Yes. I know about Gaara's very nasty plus one. But back to your very generous offer, answer's no. And if you're wondering why, it's because of her." He pointed at Temari.

"Me?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that your brother is a total jerk too. In fact I can tell he is. But you, you I really don't like."

Temari had gotten over her surprise and now seemed amused "And why would that be?"

"Remember Tenten, the girl you nearly killed in the preliminaries. First time I met her she tried to beat the crap out of me for a scroll I didn't have. Yet for some reason I like her. And what you did to her. That really makes me angry."

Temari gave a short chuckle. "Oh well. We can still learn your jutsu's secrets from your body."

The bandages on Kakuro's puppet fell away as he sent it to attack. Hunter jumped over the chattering wooden monstrosity and dived at the puppeteer but before he could reach him Temari opened up her fan so it showed one moon and yelled "Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

Hunter was blown back by the air attack and landed near the edge of the roof. Hunter sensed the puppet was right behind him. There was a slight 'shhhick' sound as four retractable blades came out of each of its arms. 'This is gunna hurt'

The puppet's blades all struck simultaneously, one where his heart should have been, one in his left shoulder and two in his lower back. Funnily enough it didn't hurt in the slightest. Suddenly Hunter got an idea. He went limp and pretended to be dead, falling backwards as the puppet pulled it's blades out.

"Well that was disappointing." said Kankurō as he pulled the puppet back to him and started walking over to where Hunter lay.

Temari stayed where she was. She was a good deal smarter than her brother and she thought that Hunter had gone down a little too easily. 'I'm being paranoid' she thought to herself. 'He couldn't have survived an attack like...wait.' then she noticed something amiss. 'No blood!'

"Kankurō get back! He's not dead yet!"

Hunter sprang back to life, his chains materialising mid swing. Kankurō barely had time to dodge and only just avoided one of the large hooks that sailed past his face.

"Dam it girl, you spoiled my surprise!" yelled Hunter.

Not wanting to give them a reprieve Hunter jumped into the air and threw his chains at Temari. She opened up her fan so all three moons were showing and sent a powerful gust of wind to intercept them. It didn't work. She had just enough time to jump out of the way before the hooks smashed into the roof where she'd just been. Hunter landed back on the roof and went straight for Temari. She folded up her fan and used it to block a leaping kick. Hunter pushed off from the fan and brought his chains round again but Temari managed to deflect them both.

'Nimble little minx' thought Hunter. 'I may have to turn this up a notch'

Sensing danger Hunter swung his chains round to block several kunai and senbon needles that had been fired from Kankurō's puppet, which was rapidly closing in on him. Several scythe blades emerged from the puppet's torso. Acting purely on instinct Hunter twisted his body round.

There was a loud crash accompanied by the sound of splintering wood as something crushed Kankurō's puppet like a bug.

"My Crow!" yelled the puppeteer

"Kankurō." he looked over at his sister. She looked terrified. Following her gaze Kankurō soon found out why.

The thing that had crushed the Crow was dark purple in colour with four spikes, two on either side, about a foot away from the tip. Further away from the tip it got darker and darker until the colour changed to inky black. The appendage was connected to the small of Hunter's back.

"A...tail!" Kankurō could hardly believe it.

Hunter moved his tail and held it up to his face. "That's interesting." He turned to face the sand siblings. Their eyes widened when they saw Hunter's mouth had changed so it now looked like a jagged black line that stretched almost from ear to ear. The fact that he was also staring at them both like they were giant hams wasn't helping either.

"That's veeeeerrrry interesting indeed."

Kankurō glanced at his puppets remains. It's main body had been destroyed but is head and remaining limbs were still functional. He pulled on his chakra strings, separating the puppets head, arms and legs from its now useless body and sent them to attack Hunter from various different angles.

"Reflect!"

The various limbs all struck a dome of translucent hexagons that appeared around Hunter. Then the shield exploded, obscuring Hunter in dust and smoke.

"Someone will have heard that." said Temari "Let's go!"

The two sand siblings turned and ran for it, jumping from roof top to roof top, heading towards the villages outer wall.

Hunter suddenly appeared on the roof in front of them, forcing them to stop.

"Going somewhere?" he asked menacingly.

Temari grabbed hold of her fan again just as Hunter started running towards them on all fours.

"Wind Scythe Jutsu!"

The fan created a powerful blast of air that flew in Hunter's direction but just before it hit him he created a black portal and disappeared into it. The exit portal appeared right in front of the sand siblings. Hunter dashed out and grabbed Kankurō by his shirt, lifting him off his feet. He also swung his tail at Temari, who had to use her fan to stop the spikes from impaling her.

"What's the matter?" asked Hunter "Cat got your..." he stopped mid sentence and closed his eyes for a moment "Terrible Darkness."

Hunter turned round, Kankurō and Temari following his gaze. Standing close by, arms folded and scowling, was the final sand sibling.

"Gaara." Hunter let go of Kankruō and moved his tail away from Temari. They both jumped over to stand by their brother.

"Well this is turning into a full on night, isn't it." said Hunter

Gaara looked at Hunter's tail. "So, there's something inside you to."

"Oh, you have nooooo idea." said Hunter.

"Gaara. The Kazekage ordered us to either capture or kill Hunter." said Kankurō. "And I'd say capturing him is out of the question now."

"Our father gave you two that order. Not me." sand started to seep out of the gourd on Gaara's back. "Still...why pass up the chance to kill someone."

The sand swept across the roof to where Hunter stood and began to encase him. He looked down at the sand that was rapidly covering him. "Oh snap." In moments he was encased in a thick layer of sand. Gaara raised his hand and enacted the final part of his jutsu "Sand Burial!"

The sand imploded.

"Well thanks a lot Gaara."

The three sand ninja all turned round and were shocked to find Hunter right behind them, using his finger to work sand out of his ear.

"I've got sand in places I didn't even know I had."

"How did you survive that!?" demanded Temari.

"Did you three all miss the fact that I can teleport!" Hunter looked past the trio and saw leaf ninja off in the distance. "You three come after me again and the gloves are off, got that? Oh and Kankurō. Sorry about your doll." With that he turned away and jumped off the roof.

"Well that was a colossal disaster." said Temari. "Not only is Hunter still alive but you lost your Crow!"

Kankurō rolled his eyes "Relax. I brought plenty of spare parts with me. If I work through the night I can get it fixed by morning. I just need to go back and pick up the peices."

Gaara stared after Hunter for a few moment's then he turned and left without a word.

"Do you think he'll be a problem tomorrow?" asked Kankurō.

Temari shrugged "I doubt it. When the invasion starts he'll probably just make a run for it. Hunter's a wanted criminal here, he's got no reason to stay."

"I wasn't talking about Hunter."

Temari thought for a moment. "Gaara will do his part. We just have to worry about doing ours."

_A short distance away_

Hunter darted through the deserted village streets, leaping off walls, jumping over small buildings. He felt like he'd been struck by a bolt of lightning. He finally skidded to a halt when he was sure he was far enough away from all the ninjas.

"Wow. That was totally wicked. Oh, there are times I...I...oh no." Hunter caught sight of his own reflection in a shop front window. He hadn't had a good view of his partial transformation before but now he could see the whole thing, the long spiked tail, the glowing yellow eyes, the broken, jagged mouth. He walked up to the window and stared intently at his own reflection. He reached up and touched his mouth.

'Even if I do find my home, can I go back like this?'

Hunter's tail retracted and his mouth returned to normal. He now looked perfectly human again, but that didn't make him feel any better.

Hunter jumped up onto the shop's roof where he laid down and went back to staring up at the stars and counting sheep.

_At the same time. In the Hokage's office._

Hunter wasn't the only one who was finding sleep elusive. For the Third Hokage the problems were just never ending, Orochimaru's return, Hunter's constant interference, the attack on the Hūyga clan and now there had been a break out from the Strict Correctional facility. The odd thing was only one prisoner was missing, Mizuki and from the looks of it someone had broken in specifically to find him. Considering how many dangerous criminals were housed in the facility why would anyone go after Mizuki? He wasn't a powerful ninja by any means, nor did he know anything truly important.

Still, for whatever reason someone powerful had risked entering a secure facility and killed a man all to get to the disgraced chunin.

The Hokage reclined in his chair and took a long puff from is pipe as he ran through his list of suspects. Orochimaru didn't care about his subordinates and wouldn't have bothered with a rescue, so it wasn't him. He couldn't completely rule out the other Hidden Villages but he'd been told by the investigators that no jutsu had been used, which made their involvement unlikely. Then there was Hunter. He had the power to do it, no question, but murder wasn't his style. Even then Hunter had no motive, as far as he knew, to go after Mizuki.

Sarutobi thought back to what Hiashi had told him. The Hūyga clan head had described him as cold, ruthless and said that he had called himself 'Thorn', yet when Sarutobi had met Hunter later that same day he'd seemed like his normal self. Either Hunter had developed a split personality disorder or Hunter and Thorn were separate entities. In either case Thorn seemed to have a great deal of power, yet unlike Hunter he was willing to cause serious harm.

Sarutobi let out a long sigh and grudgingly got back to his mountain of paperwork.

_Konoha Archive Library, ninja records section._

"No...No...No...Yes."

After an extensive search of Konoha's ninja records Thorn had finally found what he was looking for. He was in no danger of being discovered. While the records library did have various security in the form of seals and guards, it was nowhere near as protected as the clan libraries. Confidant that he would not be disturbed Thorn settled down and began reading the records of Kushina Uzumaki. He'd barely started when a Samurai Nobody appeared behind him. It bowed its head slightly and passed on its message.

Thorn practically jumped to his feet.

"What!? Why wasn't I told of this sooner I-"

A black portal appeared and a figure wearing a black cloak stepped out.

"Hey, Twilight."

Thorn bowed a little "My Lord."

The figure rubbed the back of its head "Right. You're not gunna stop calling me that are you?"

"I can used different titles if 'Lord' displeases you my Liege."

"Never mind. Erm, the other want a status report from you so...how's everything going?"

"Very well my Liege." he lifted the scroll he'd been reading. "I have the last piece of information I require. I will acquire my target soon."

"Right, good. Just...go easy on Naruto, ok Thorn. He seems like a nice kid."

"As you wish my Lord."

The figure nodded and disappeared into a black portal.

The Samurai leaned in close to Thorn's ear.

"Yes I agree. Lord Roxas is far too nice for his own good."

_Early next morning._

"Five hundred thousand six hundred seventy one sheep. Five hundred thousand six hundred seventy two sheep..."

After hours upon hours of counting sheep Hunter was going stir crazy. If something didn't happen soon he felt like he would explode. Sighing he sat up and looked around. The sun had just risen above the horizon and a few people were about on the street below, opening up their shops and putting up large banners advertising the chunin exam finals. A small bird fluttered over and landed on Hunter's nose. He slowly raised his arm and flicked it. The bird shot away with a short screech, leaving only a few feathers hovering in its place.

Remembering that he still had Kakashi's Icha Icah Paradise Hunter sat up and retrieved the book from its hiding place. He'd torn out the first few pages to taunt Kakashi but hopefully the plot wouldn't be too hard to pick up.

"Ok. _He_ _leaned in close and placed a delicate kiss on her lips_... Pretty tame so far."

He turned over to the next page. His eyes bulged as he continued reading and his skin became visibly paler until finally he slammed the book shut.

"Never again...never...again."

Hunter let his gaze wander and found himself drawn to the Hokage Monument that overlooked the village. He recognised the third face from the left as Sarutobi.

'So, the other two must be the previous Hokage's' Hunter looked at the fourth and final face 'Well then who is that guy? If he's the fourth Hokage then where is he? Extended vacation!? Hmm...' Something about that man's face looked familiar.

"Wait. He looks just like-"

"Hunter!"

He jumped to his feet and turned round in surprise.

On the rooftops behind him were several masked ANBU ninja. The one who'd called his name was a woman named Yūgao Uzuki. She had long purple hair and wore a cat mask with three red marks, one on the forehead and two on each porcelain cheek. The entire ANBU squad leapt down to surround Hunter, drawing their swords and taking up defensive stances.

"Hunter, by order of the Third Hokage, you are under-"

Before she could finish Hunter shot forwards and wrapped his arms round her and lifted her off the ground.

"Oh thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" he yelled, ecstatically. "You have no idea how GLAD I am to see you all!" the he kissed her on the head three times.

ANBU ninja are trained to deal with life or death situations. Often the enemies they face are super powered psychopaths who enjoy killing, maiming and other horrible things.

Hugs and kisses were not something any of them were trained to deal with.

Hunter eventually put her down and took a few steps back. "Sorry, awkward. Hehe...So can you all please form a neat orderly queue so I can-"

Hunter ducked to avoid a sword strike that narrowly missed his head. The ANBU squad ran in all at once, planning to overwhelm him.

"Aerora!" Everyone was blown back by a powerful gust of wind. Most of the squad landed on their feet a short distance away from Hunter.

"Stand Clear!" ordered Yūgao. She pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag and threw it at Hunter. The ANBU team's overall plan was to use weak explosives to force Hunter into a trap outside the village. The whole thing had been planned out in great detail including the route they would take and where the backup teams were. She wasn't surprised when Hunter caught the explosive kunai, what was surprising was when he didn't throw it away and instead held it up to his face.

The explosion was quite small but at that close range it could still be fatal. When the tiny cloud of dust cleared however, Hunter had no visible injuries.

"Is that all you got?" he asked, mockingly.

Under her mask Yūgao gritted her teeth. 'How are we supposed to get him to go where we want when he can just shrug off our attacks?'

Hunter sidestepped one of the ANBU then cast a Blizzard spell on the floor, turning it to ice. The sudden change caused two other ANBU that had been charging at Hunter to slip and fall over, much to Hunter's amusement.

'He's actually enjoying himself!' Yūgao thought 'Hmm. He's enjoying himself'.

"Everyone, fall back!" she ordered.

The squad obeyed and followed their leader in leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Yūgao looked over her shoulder and sure enough Hunter was following close behind them.

"Get back here you chickens!"

'Just as I thought. We don't need to force him away, we just have to lead him.'

Hunter continued to follow the ANBU squad as they lead him across the village, over the outer wall and into the woods beyond. They hadn't gone far when they reached a large clearing. Once they were halfway in the ANBU team halted.

"NOW!" yelled Yūgao.

Four new ninjas leapt out of the bushes and surrounded Hunter. Each of them was carrying a massive scroll, which they all placed on the ground and opened up. Then they started making hand signs. Three rings of glowing golden symbols appeared on the ground around Hunter, then a barrier made of light shot up around him.

"The seal is in place!" yelled one of the ninjas.

Hunter tapped on the shield a few times. Upon discovering that it was quite solid he looked at Yūgao "Clever girl."

"There's no way out Hunter." she said matter of factly.

"Yeah, we'll see about that!"

Yūgao smirked under her mask "Boar!" An ANBU wearing a boar mask nodded and body flickered away.

After about thirty seconds of waiting Hunter got bored and started examining his nails. 'Still better than the rooftop' he thought to himself.

About a minute later the Boar returned, along with two other ninja. The first was Anko, the other was an older man. He had a large, imposing figure, two diagonal scars on his face, one small one just below his right eye and one long one that stretched from above his left eye down almost to his chin.

"Well this was worth waking up for" said Anko "finally you're going to get what's coming to you."

Hunter did his best to look nonchalant "Um-hm. So who's your date." he asked, looking at the man.

"Ibiki Morino." answered the man. "I'm here to ask you a few simple questions."

"Questions, questions it's always questions with you guys. Alright. Fire away."

Ibiki smiled menacingly "Since your attack on the Hyūga clan you've searched through just about every clan library. We know it was you, you left the scrolls lying on the floor. Are you just gathering information on Konoha's clans or are you after something in particular?"

Hunter stared at him like he'd grown a extra head "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Oh drop the act Hunter!" yelled Anko. "You broke into the Hyūga clan library yesterday. You put three men in the Hospital!"

'They're talking about Thorn' Hunter realised 'So he's been raiding libraries. Why? Is he starting a book collection?'

"Hellllo...Hunter!?" Anko's voice snapped him out of his musing "Sorry, are we boring you?" she asked, sarcastically.

"Yes actually. Anyone want to play a game of chess?" He looked over at Yūgao "Maybe a game of twister?"

'This kid doesn't feel threatened in the slightest' thought Ibiki. 'I'll have to wear down his confidence before he'll reveal anything'

"You get quite a thrill from keeping your secrets from us." stated the interrogator. "But your mission in the Leaf is obvious."

Hunter leaned back against the barrier. This should be good.

"You're here on an information gathering mission. You don't belong to any particular village so you've been hired as a mercenary by another village who wants' deniability. Though I don't understand why anyone would send someone like you on such a delicate mission"

"I don't expect you to understand, Mr Bond I expect you to..." Hunter's super hearing picked up the sound of a pencil scratching against paper. Looking to his right he saw a brown haired ninja scribbling something down on a notepad. The man looked up when he realised Hunter had stopped talking "And what are you doing?"

"I'm just here to record Ibiki's interrogation. My job is to take down anything you say."

"Trousers."

The man started to write that down, then he realised Hunter's meaning and crossed it out.

Hunter looked back at Ibiki "You were saying."

"Well, you're dedicated, I'll give you that." admitted Ibiki "You've taken a lot of risks in your mission, attacking powerful ninjas, even the Hokage. Your employer must be paying you a lot."

Hunter shrugged "You could say that. 'Employer' is pushing it a little though."

Ibiki seemed to ignore him, inwardly however he took note of how there seemed to be no love lost between Hunter and whoever hired him. "I wonder just how dedicated to your mission you are? Enough to die perhaps? Enough to kill?"

That made Hunter pay attention.

Ibiki smiled "Ah, so now you're taking this seriously. Now that I have your attention, are you responsible the break out at the Strict Correctional Facility?"

Hunter was scratched his head. "Nnnope. Wait...no, no. Definitely no".

"Really?" continued Ibiki "Because we have a missing prisoner, a dead guard and no justsu was sued. Care to explain that?"

Hunter's smile disappeared. He'd know that his nobody was evil but hearing that it had killed someone...That thing had been part of him once.

"Oh no." he muttered under his breath.

Ibiki recognised the look on his face. It was the 'what am I even doing anymore?' look he'd seen on hundreds of shinobi. 'Maybe he didn't break Mizuki out, but he knows more than he's letting on.'

Hunter looked up at Ibiki and Anko "Q 'n' A's over."

WHAM!

Hunter slammed his palms into the barrier, dug his nails in and started to glow with a black aura. The golden symbols on the ground began to fluctuate and the chakra barrier started to flicker.

"The seal is destabilising!" announced one of the sealing team "He's breaking through!"

The ANBU team readied their weapons. That was when the seal finally failed and the barrier dropped.

Anko saw something moving behind Hunter "What the!?...A tail!"

Hunter looked over his shoulder and saw that he'd developed a tail again. "D'oh!" it quickly retracted back into his lower back. 'I'm gunna have to keep an eye on that thing.'

'This explains everything' thought Anko, panicking slightly 'The jutsu, the eyes. Hunter is a Jinchūriki!'

"Adios amigos!" Hunter started to create a black portal.

"No you don't!" Ibiki threw three explosive tagged kunai at the ground around Hunter. The explosion was large enough to through Hunter back, and stop the portal from fully opening.

Ibiki, Anko and the ANBU ninja stood their ground, waiting for the inevitable counter attack.

One of Hunter's hooks shot out of the smoke, flying past Ibiki and narrowly avoiding Anko, it slammed into the ground a few feet behind them. Hunter was right behind it, leaping out of the fading dust cloud, aiming a punch at Anko that she managed to dodge at the last moment.

"Aerora!" Hunter's air spell forced the closest ninjas back, while others had to shied their faces giving him enough time to create a new black portal. This time he wasn't interrupted.

"Damn it." muttered Ibiki as the portal disappeared. "Oh well. I knew the seal wouldn't hold him forever but I didn't expect him to escape so soon." Ibiki looked over at Anko. "I take it you saw the tail to?"

"No I missed the giant black spiky tail waving around behind him." she replied sarcastically. "We should have guessed he was a Jinchūriki. It's the only way he could have all that power."

"ANBU! Return to the village and search for any sign of Hunter, but do not engage. I want to know what he's up to." the ANBU ninjas body flickered away. With their job done the sealing team left to.

"Anko. You and I need to report our findings to the Hokage. The next time Hunter makes an appearance we will be ready for him."

Anko nodded in agreement. She was about to leave when she heard a rustling sound in the bushes behind her. She spun round on the sport and threw a kunai into the shrubbery. There was a dull thud as it passed through the bush and hit the tree behind. She watched the bush for any sign of movement but there was nothing.

"Problem?" asked Ibiki.

"I thought I heard something." said Anko. "Probably just the wind."

The two ninjas left the clearing.

As soon as it was sure they were gone a small Creeper Nobody crawled out of the bushes. It turned its head and looked back at Anko's kunai, which had passed right through its body. Then it teleported away, eager to inform Twilight Thorn of this event.

_Back in the village_

As soon as Hunter had returned he'd changed his shape into his female form and was now walking in the direction of the battle arena, where the chunin exam finals would take place. All the while all he could think about was what Ibiki had told him. Thorn was a killer. He and his nobody were basically the same person, so how had they become so different? And if Thorn had that kind of evil in him, did he have it too?

Hunter was just about to walk out of a side street onto a larger main road until he saw Naruto run by. He briefly wondered why he was in such a hurry. He got his answer when a herd of rather angry looking bulls ran past after the blond ninja.

Hunter shook her head "This world get's weirder every day." She followed Naruto's trail right up to the arena, although instead of going in the front door she opted for a different way in. Hunter simply walked right up to the buildings wall and started walking up the vertical stone surface.

She was about half way up when she began muttering "Don't look down, don't look down...Crap. I looked." Soon she reached the top of the arena. Definitely the best seat in the house. The stadium was a large circular structure made out of solid concrete, like a roman coliseum without all the arches. There were three stands located just beyond the stadium's perimeter, and they were already full of people that had come to watch the matches. On the middle had a second level to it. Unlike the level below it had only two chairs, one of which was occupied by the Hokage. There was also a rectangular hole in the wall where the competitors waited.

Hunter could see everything from her position. Including someone familiar. Once again his face had changed but the heart was still the same.

Orochimaru was sitting next to the Hokage. He was wearing what looked like a blue version of the Hokage's robes and was flanked by four guards, all of whom had dark hearts.

'What is he up to?' wondered Hunter as he changed back to his male form.

Someone way down below yelled out "Let the Chunin exam finals begin!"

The crowd cheered.

Hunter sat down and let his legs dangle over the edge.

"I should have brought some popcorn."

The first match was between Naruto and Neji. Needless to say Hunter was rooting for Naruto and although it was touch and go for a while, when the blond actually managed to beat Neji he was overjoyed.

"WAHOO! GO GO NARUTO!" Hunter yelled.

The second match was supposed to be Sasuke against Gaara but Sasuke hadn't shown up yet so the match was postponed. Instead the second match was to be Kankurō vs Shino but Kankurō surprisingly withdrew, much to the crowds frustration.

The second match was instead Shikamaru vs Temari. Hunter thought that Temari would win easily but he was surprised when late in the match Shikamaru managed to catch her in his shadow possession jutsu. Apparently he'd been planning five steps ahead the whole time and his every action had all been aimed at manipulating Temari. But just before Shikamaru could finish Temari off he suddenly up and forfeited.

"WHAT!" yelled Hunter in surprise. "You're just going to let that sand witch walk away, just like that!...Owwwww!"

The second (technically third) match was now over and Sasuke still hadn't shown up yet. The crowd, Hunter included were starting to get impatient.

That was when Sasuke and Kakashi finally showed up, in suitably flashy style. Kakashi went to the stadium while Sasuke went to the arena to fight Gaara.

Sasuke hadn't been fooling around for the past month. His speed had increased drastically, he was almost as fast as Rock Lee, and just like Lee Sasuke could outrun Gaara's sand shield. After getting his ass kicked all over the arena Gaara went into a protective ball of sand. Hunter was a good distance away, and that sand was an excellent sound barrier but his super hearing could still make out something coming from inside.

'Is he...chanting?'

His supernatural hearing also picked up part of a conversation between Temari and Kankurō.

"...I don't know but he's not following the plan. He's no good to us like that."

'Plan huh. Just what's going on around here?'

Sasuke tried to break through but he nearly got impaled by spikes of sand that shot out from the ball. The genin pulled back, way back, all the way up the arena wall. Hunter focused on Sasuke. As he watched Sasuke created what looked like a ball of lightning in his left hand, then he ran down the wall, hit the ground and charged at Gaara's sand ball. This time he broke through.

Nothing happened for a moment. Then Gaara screamed "AAARRRRGGGHHHH... Blood! ITS MY BLOOD!"

"Cripes, that kid can shriek." said Hunter.

Sasuke eventually managed to pull his arm free from the sand ball. A monstrous arm made of sand followed him out and nearly crushed him, then it retreated back into the ball. All Hunter could see inside was a mass of shifting sand, accompanied by the sound of beastlike growling.

This carried on for several seconds, then the sand ball disintegrated, revealing Gaara, who was clutching a small wound in his left shoulder.

"That was just plain weird. Huh...what's happening now?!" Down in the stands below people were starting to fall asleep en mass. Then there was a loud bang from where the Hokage and Orochimaru had been sitting. Looking up he saw a large plume of grey smoke.

Hunter's hearing picked up strange noises in the distance. Looking back at the village he could see people, ninjas, fighting in the streets and just beyond the village were three Kaiju size snakes that were about to come crashing through the walls.

"That smoke was a starting pistol. Orchimaru's launching an invasion...and those sand gits are all in on it!"

Hunter looked back down at the stadium. There was fighting down there now too, amongst the unconscious crowd.

He broke into a smile as his chains materialised by his side.

"Well what am I standing around for!"

He jumped off the edge and dived towards the battle.

"LOOK OUT BELOW!


	9. Chapter 9

Ok, and here's chapter nine, the big battle scene. This is the longest chapter I've written yet and I had a lot of fun writing it. Please enjoy and look out for a special guest appearance by...well, you'll just have to read it and find out.

* * *

Chapter 9

The Hidden Leaf was in chaos. The sound and sand village's swift and brutal joint attack had caught everyone off guard. Most of the fighting was happening along the outer wall but it had quickly spread and now battles were erupting throughout the village. Inside the battle arena was no different. A large number of sound ninja had been hiding amongst the crowd, once they'd seen the signal they'd revealed themselves and started attacking anyone who was still awake.

In the middle of the arena the Sand Siblings, their Jōnin, Baki, were about to face off against the chunin exams proctor, Genma and Sasuke Uchiha. One overly ambitious sound ninja thought he could make a name for himself by killing Genma while his back was turned. He ran at the leaf ninja, drawing a kunai.

That was when Hunter landed right on top of him. "I did say look out." he said as he stepped off the unconscious sound ninja.

The commotion drew everyone's attention. They all recognised Hunter instantly. He looked between the two sides, then he crossed his arms and gave them all a stern look.

"Well now this is just the height of rudeness. Starting a party like this and NOT inviting me. After all we've be through! Sasuke, Temari and...the man who play's with dolls whose name I forget."

Kankurō looked furious and for a moment it looked like he was about to drop Gaara and attack, until his sister threw a kunai at Hunter, who caught it before it hit his face.

"Ha!" then he saw the tag attached to the knifes hilt. "Ah, exploding tag. Teu'shay madam." then it exploded, staggering Hunter and giving the sand siblings a chance to escape, with Sasuke right behind them. Hunter charged out of the smoke but he was instantly confronted by Baki.

"Why side with them!?" the sand jōnin demanded "The Hidden Leaf is finished. Why not join the winning team?"

"Three reasons. A: I don't like any of you. B: I do like most of these guy's and C is a large body of salt water where fish live!" Hunter's eyes started to glow yellow. He charged at Baki, swinging one chain round in an arc. Baki jumped over it easily, that's when Hunter swung the other chain at him while he was airborne. Baki had seen it coming and performed a substitution jutsu. As soon as Hunter's chain hit the sand jōnin disappeared in a puff of smoke, to be replaced by a tree stump.

Hunter turned round and just in time to block Baki's attempt to stab him with a kunai.

"Not bad" said Baki "Good reflexes but your fighting style is sloppy and-" Hunter shut him up with a headbut, staggering him.

"Blizzra!" Hunter fired several ice blasts at Baki, which he successfully avoided.

'Ice style!' thought Baki 'I thought that kekkei genkai was extinct!' He ran towards Hunter while using his chakra to create a wind sword in his right hand "It's over!"

"Aerora!" Baki's wind sword hit Hunter's air spell and utterly failed to pass through.

"Impossible!"

"Ha! Wind sword, meet wind shield!" Hunter expanded the spell, the resulting gust of wind forcing Baki back.

Hunter sensed another ninja about to attack him. He spun round, aiming to kick the man in the gut but before his leg connected the ma was struck by a kunai and thrown sideways. The source of the kunai had been Genma, who was standing next to two other defeated enemy ninja.

He walked over to Hunter and said "Not bad." He looked over at Baki. "The reports on you were right after all."

"Um...Thanks." Hunter rubbed the back of his head and tried to look modest "I'm not gunna have to fight you as well am I?"

Genma gave a dry chuckle "In case you haven't noticed the Hidden Leaf has more pressing matters than apprehending a fugitive right now."

"Never underestimate human stupidity." Hunter looked back at Baki, who was now back on his feet and staring angrily at the two of them. "You wanna have the next dance?"

Genma took a step forwards "Certainly."

Hunter threw out one of his chains, knocking a sand ninja out of the air, then he left the two jōnin and went straight for the stands.

_Up in the stands_

Kakashi deflected another kunai and kicked the sound ninja who'd thrown it in the face, knocking the man out. His self proclaimed rival, Might Guy, was currently engaging three foes at once a few rows away, and easily besting them all.

He noticed a sound ninja heading straight for Sakura but before he could stop the man a chain suddenly wrapped around the sound ninja's waist. Someone yelled "Get over here!" and the man was pulled away.

'I recognise that voice' thought Kakashi. Sure enough the sound ninja landed right next to Hunter, who proceeded to punch him several times in rapid succession while saying "I'll teach you to pick on little girls ya jerk!"

Sakura had noticed him to "Wa..Hunter!? Kakashi-sensei is he on our side now?"

Hunter spun round, punching a sand ninja in the face and casting an ice spell on another.

"Well he's defiantly not on their side."

Hunter ran over to Kakashi and Sakura, both of whom braced themselves for an attack. "Pinky! It's been a while. Kakashi! Long time no see."

"Yes, I believe the last time was when you tried to kill me."

Hunter looked sheepish "Ah, yeah sorry 'bout that."

A sound ninja shot past the group, having just been kicked in the stomach by Might Guy.

"Ha, the most youthful Hunter has returned. No doubt you wish to pit yourself against Kakashi again."

"What...no actually I'm here to beat the holy snot out of these guys." Hunter pointed at one of the unconscious sound ninjas. "So...Truce?"

"And just why are you so eager to help us?" asked Kakashi.

"Well this lot all work for the snake man." Both Kakashi and Guy put on serious looks.

"Orochimaru is behind all this?" said Sakura.

"Yep, and I'm sure as hell not helping him. So what do you say?"

"Alright. Truce." agreed Kakashi.

"Excellent." Hunter spun round and punched a sound ninja in the face. "Now back to business." Hunter grabbed hold of a sand ninja and slammed him into an empty seat with enough force to break both the chair and several of the unfortunate man's bones.

"Sakura. Go and break Naruto and Shikamaru out of the Genjutsu!" ordered Kakashi.

"Just Shikamaru and Naruto? But what about the others, Ino, Choji."

"No time. Many Sand and Sound shinobi may have already infiltrated this village. Besides, if you have more than the four ninja essential to a squad it takes longer to get anything done, and it becomes more difficult to hide from the enemy."

"More difficult!" yelled Hunter. Kakashi and Sakura looked over at him. He was currently holding two sound ninja by the throat, then he bashed them together and chucked them away. "Well then how did you 'great ninjas' not notice the two hundred or so bad guys parked outside your front door! Or all this lot who snuck **right past you**!?"

"We can assign blame later." said Kakashi as he used his kunai to make a small cut on his thumb.

"Four squad mates. Does that mean you're coming with us Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"No. I must not leave this place." he made several hand signs, then he place both hands on the ground and yelled "Summoning Jutsu!" The was a small puff of smoke and a small ninja-dog appeared.

"Pakkun here will track down Sasuke by scent." continued Kakashi.

Sakura was unimpressed "Wait, seriously. Our fourth member is a puppy!?"

Pakkun jumped up onto the back of the seat in front of Sakura, so he was now level with her face "Alright listen little girl. Don't you dare go around saying I'm just a cute puppy." for a small dog he had a surprisingly deep and gravelly voice.

'But...I didn't even say cute' thought Sakura.

Pakkun sniffed the air a few times, then he looked over at Hunter, who was still fighting off sand ninjas. "Strange." the dog muttered. "That's like nothing I've ever smelled before."

Hunter turned round and caught sight of the small ninja dog. "PUUUUUUGGGGG!" he yelled with glee. Before anyone could so much as blink Hunter had shot over and grabbed Pakkun in a crushingly tight hug. "Oh it's so adawable!"

Kakashi and Sakura stared in disbelief. Pakkun was not enjoying this 'attention' and was desperately trying to wriggle free "Arrk. Kakashi! Guy! Somebody! Get this lunatic off of me!"

"He talks too. Double Adawable!"

While Hunter continued to squeeze the life out of poor Pakkun, Sakura had managed to sneak round to where Naruto lay and dispel the genjutsu. Slowly he started to wake up, rubbing his eyes and yawning as though he was just getting up from an afternoon nap.

"Mmmm. Hey, what's going on Sakura?" he asked sleepily.

"Get down!" Sakura grabbed hold of Naruto and pushed him to the floor just as a kunai flew past where his head used to be and clanged against the wall.

Sakura cautiously crawled over to the still sleeping Shikamaru and prepared to dispel the genjutsu again. Then she saw his nose twitch. "Shikamaru...you were...this whole time..."

Pakkun finally broke free from Hunter and jumped over to Shikamaru. Then the small dog bit him on the leg. Shikamaru bolted upright with a yell and started shaking his leg in an attempt to throw Pakkun off.

"You already released the genjutsu you faker" said Sakura, scoldingly "Why were you pretending to be asleep this whole time!?"

Shikamaru managed to get Pakkun off his leg and held the dog up by the scruff of its small shirt. "I didn't want to get involved. Just give me a break, I couldn't care less about Sasuke." While he was talking he pulled on Pakkun's face, which lead to the dog biting him on the hand.

Naruto had fully shaken off the genjutsu induced sleep now and was aware of the battle going on around him and the fact that almost everyone who'd been watching the exams had fallen asleep.

"Wha- What is all this?"

A sound ninja suddenly appeared behind him.

"Behind you!" yelled Sakura.

There was a loud crash as Might Guy punched the ninja in the stomach, sending him into the back wall.

"So...fast..." grunted the sound ninja.

"Not just fast, but powerful." said Guy, who pushed the ninja right through the rest of the wall.

Kakashi leapt over to where the genin and Guy were assembled "Now, I'll explain the mission. As soon as I do go through that opening. First track down Sasuke and stop him, then find a safe location and await further orders."

A sound ninja attempted to attack the group but before Kakashi or Guy could deal with him a chain wrapped around the enemy nin's waist and he was pulled away with a cry of "GET OVER HERE!"

Naruto recognised the voice instantly "Wha- Oh no, what's he doing back here!?"

"Well, it's nice to see you again to Naruto." said Hunter as he slammed the sound ninja he'd just caught into the wall.

"Arrgh! You keep saying my name wrong! It's Na-roo- toe. Not Na-root-oh!"

"Whatever" Hunter rolled his eyes.

"Why are you even here anyway?" asked Naruto.

"Hunter has made a most youthful decision and joined with the Leaf to fight the sand and sound ninja." answered Guy with his trademark smile and thumbs up.

"That pretty much covers it." agreed Hunter. He spun round and smacked an approaching sand ninja in the side of the head with one of his hooks. "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I brought fifteen freaking packs of gum! CHARGE!" He leapt up into the air and collided with a sound ninja.

"He's completely crazy." said Naruto.

Sakura nodded in agreement "At least he's on our side. Now let's go." she grabbed hold of Naruto and jumped out of the hole in the wall.

"What a drag." sighed Shikamaru.

"Listen whiner!" Shikamaru looked down at Pakkun, who was resting on the genin's leg. "Look, if this mission is a success as a reward I'll let you touch my paw. Well, my pads. So there's no reason to sulk!"

"What?"

"Come on. They're really soft." assured the dog.

"They're...what?"

Pakkun Hung his head in disappointment "No one ever wants to shake." then he yelled out "BUT MY PAWS ARE SO SOFT AND SUUUPLLLEE!"

Shikamaru said nothing and just stared at the dog.

"Forget it. Let's go." Pakkun bit the lazy young genin on the hand again and dragged him out through the hole after Sakura and Naruto.

"Don't let those brats get away!" yelled one of the sound ninja. Three of his comrades and two sand ninja charged towards Guy and Kakashi.

Hunter saw them and ran over to intercept them, pulling back his arm to punch the lead ninja. He was a few inches away when he started unconsciously channelling darkness into his arm, and his fist opened up into a claw. All Kakashi and Guy saw was something darting in between the oncoming enemy nin, then the attacking group all fell to the ground, clutching at claw marks on various parts of their bodies and groaning in pain. Hunter was standing behind where the group had just been. He was looking down at his right arm.

"What the-?" Kakashi could scarcely believe what he was seeing. Hunter's entire right arm had changed, from the shoulder down to the elbow it was now jet black in colour then it slowly became dark purple. His hand had morphed into a type of claw which Hunter was closely examining.

"That's new" he said to himself. Then he spun round and held up his changed arm "I hereby christen you: SAVAGE CLAW MODE!"

"How can his body change like that? What is this kid?" asked Guy.

"A Jinchuriki." said Kakashi.

Hunter didn't seem to hear them, he was looking down at the other end of the stand where a man dressed as a Leaf ANBU ninja was standing, flanked by a group of sound ninja who were in a guarding formation. Hunter recognised the fake ANBU as the same man who'd put everyone to sleep. He also recognised his heart.

"Hey! You!" he yelled.

The Fake ANBU looked up at him, and so did some of the sound ninjas.

"I remember you. The chunin prelims. Its...Kabuto...Right?"

That caught Kakashi's attention. 'Kabuto?'

The fake ANBU laughed "Hahah. You are a perceptive one aren't you Hunter." Kabuto removed his mask and donned his pair of large circular spectacles. "Or is it all just that Kekkei Genkai of yours?"

"You might say that. Even without my eyes though, evil like yours can't be covered up four eyes!"

"Humph." Kabuto drew a kunai from under his cloak. Unlike most other knives Hunter had seen this one had a curved tip. "What a fascinating dōjutsu. And then there's that physical transformation." Kabuto directed his gaze at Hunter's arm. "You would be invaluable to Lord Orochimaru's research."

"Dream on, Specs." Hunter put on a burst of speed and charged at Kabuto, pulling back his claw to slash at the silver haired spy. The moment his claw made contact though Kabout disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a wooden log. ' I hate it when they do that' thought Hunter as he continued running towards Kabuto's guards. In seconds they were all on the ground, clutching at slash marks on their arms and legs. That's when Kabuto reappeared in front of Hunter and tried to slice his throat with his knife. Hunter ducked under Kabuto's swing and brought his claw upwards, but Kabuto was a quick one and he jumped back before the claw could harm him.

"You missed." Taunted Kabuto.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." said Hunter, pointing at his nose.

Kabuto's glasses split apart at the nose and fell away in two half's.

Hunter smiled widely "You should have gone to specsavers Kabuto."

Kabuto gritted his teeth in anger "This isn't over." then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I think I touched a nerve. Hey! Kakashi!"

The one eyed ninja finished knocking out two sound ninjas and looked over at Hunter. "Yes!?"

"Can you and Guy handle this lot? I'm going to stop this invasion now!"

"A most youthful idea Hunter, but how will you accomplish it!?" asked Guy.

"Same way you stop any army." Hunter looked up at where the Hokage and Orochimaru were. "You tear off the snakes head."

Hunter started walking towards the stands guard rail.

"Hunter don't be a fool!" yelled Kakashi. "You can't just charge in to battle against someone like Orochimaru! You need a plan of attack."

"I have a plan." said Hunter as he climbed up onto the metal railing and crouched down. "Attack!" he pushed off and launched himself into the air.

"That idiot's going to get himself killed." muttered Kakashi.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." said Guy as he took down another enemy nin. "Hunter has great youthful energy. And when you have the fires of youth on your side nothing is impossible!"

Kakashi groaned at haveing to listen to another 'fires of youth speech'. 'I just hope Hunter doesn't die. He still has my book.'

Hunters jump sent him several feet above the roof top where Orochimaru and Sarutobi were, and it was obvious that things were not going well.

The Hokage and Orochimaru were both on the side of the roof that was facing in towards the arena. Around them was a square barrier shield that covered most of the roof, leaving only a small space around it. It was being maintained by four sound ninja who were each located at one of the shield's corners. The one closest to where Hunter was aiming to, which was the right corner, was a young man with white hair and what looked like a second head growing out of the back of his neck. A closer inspection with Heartless vision revealed that the head was real, and the body it belonged to was merged somehow with the other man's body. Across from him in the upper right corner was a girl with long red hair but because she had her back to him Hunter couldn't see her face. In the upper left was a large man with greyish skin and dull orange hair. The last guy in the lower left was perhaps the weirdest of the lot because he had six arms.

Hunter landed just to the right of a group of ANBU ninajs. Well, 'landed' may not be the right word. He crashed through the roof and ended up buried up to his waist in the tiles. "Not my finest moment." he muttered as he pulled himself out of the hole he'd made. The ninja squad looked over at him in surprise, pulling kunai and shuriken out of their pockets.

"Oh for the love of...I'm on your side morons! You can put the kitchen utensils down."

Naturally the ninjas ignored what he said but neither did they attack him, so that was something.

Hunter walked up to the force field and yelled "Hey! Old timer! Can you hear me in there!?"

Sarutobi looked round in surprise. "Hunter?"

"Well this is unexpected." chuckled Orochimaru "I expected you to leave this village at the first sign of trouble."

"You don't know the first thing about me Lizard Man, so you can kiss my...what the heck." Hunter gave Orochimaru a quizzical look. "There's something wrong with your body it's... wait...you're female!"

Orochimaru looked irritated for a moment, then he went into one of his evil cackles "Hahaha! That dōjutsu of yours is impressive. I must make a point of acquiring it." He raised his hand to his face. "I wasn't going to revel this until later." When he took it away his face had completely changed, it was now a woman's face with unnaturally pale skin, dark eyes and bright red lips. The one thing that hadn't changed was the snake like eyes. "But you've forced my hand." his voice had change too and was now distinctly female but it still manage to be just as creepy as his regular voice.

"What is this? Who the devil are you!?" demanded Sarutobi.

"Don't you recognise me sensei? It's me. Orochimaru."

Sarutobi was horrified "It can't be...You've mastered even that forbidden jutsu!"

The female Orochimaru giggled "It's been ten years of hard work, since I left the village."

"What forbidden jutsu, what the hell are you to talking about!?" yelled Hunter, who was still stuck on the whole 'Orochimaru is a girl' thing.

"I suppose you could say it's a revival justu. You find a body. A young body. Then you pour your spirit into it and make it your own."

"So you're a ghoul AND a body snatcher!" yelled Hunter.

That earned another laugh from Orochimaru "Such a short-sighted view, just like Sarutobi-sensei. I really must thank this village though. You've prepared my next body so well."

Sarutobi gritted his teeth "Now I understand. It's Sasuke Uchiha."

"Very good. You guessed it. It's Sasuke I want."

"So you've mastered a jutsu that preserves your soul in the bodies of others" said Sarutobi "How many bodies has it been? How many faces?"

"Hmm. Two or three perhaps." said Orochimaru, almost as though he didn't care "But I'll wait for Sasuke until he's ripe. Until he's been raised and trained to my liking. Tell me, which face would you like me to wear." she raised her hand to her face again "Perhaps it would be better for you to look on a familiar face." when he took his hand away his face and voice were back to 'normal'. "As you die."

Orochimaru made a hand sign and yelled out "Summoning Jutsu! First!"

A large earthen coffin emerged from a portal a few steps in front of Orochimaru. Hunter was suddenly struck by a horrible feeling, as though everything in the world was going wrong. He didn't understand what the snake sannin was doing but some instinct inside was telling him.

"Now, Second!" another coffin rose up next to the first one.

Hunter's feeling of wrongness got even worse, so much so that he wrapped his arms around his stomach like he was going to be sick.

Sarutobi and the ANBU ninja had all noticed his reaction.

"Huh. What's wrong with him?" asked one of the ANBU squad.

"And now the Third!" another coffin started to rise up in front and between the last two.

'I have to stop the third one before it's too late!' thought Sarutobi. He made and hand sign and used his chakra to interrupt the summoning. The third coffin halted then sank back into its portal, disappearing.

'So the third one failed.' thought Orochimaru 'Ah well, two should be enough.' Looking to his right he saw Hunter bent over, clutching at his stomach 'So this jutsu has an adverse affect on him. Interesting.'

The coffin lids fell away and the two occupants stepped out. The one of Orochimaru's right had long black hair and wore red armour, the one to his left had white spiky hair and wore blue armour. Both of them looked dull, both in expression and in colour. Hunter could also make out several crakes in their bodies like broken ceramic pots.

"It's been a long time." said the man in blue.

"You've gotten so old Saru." said the man in red.

Their voices sounded dull too.

"T-that's impossible!" Stammered one of the ANBU "Those people are..."

"What? Who are they?" asked another.

"Grrrrr." the ninjas looked over at Hunter "Bringing back the dead... is WRONG!"

"The dead!?" exclaimed the ninja.

"He's right." said the squad leader. "The one with the black hair is the First Hokage, and the one with the white hair is the Second Hokage. They were considered the greatest ninja of their generation. I mean they **built** the Hidden Leaf village."

"What kind of jutsu can bring back the dead!?"

"A forbidden one. It uses the same principle as a regular summon. Normally a ninja only requires a small drop of blood for a summoning. This jutsu requires a living human sacrifice to work. The spirit of the dead person is summoned into the sacrifices body, then the body is surrounded by a layer of dust and earth, giving them the appearance the spirit had in life."

"I know who they are." said Hunter. "I can see underneath the dirt. It's Kin and Zaku."

"Who are they?" asked one of the ANBU.

"Orochimaru's goons." Hunter looked up at the snake sannin. "You sacrificed your own troops! You twisted...Errrmph." Hunter doubled over "Ooooo. I want to throw up but I don't have a stomach."

The Second Hokage turned to look at Orochimaru. "The resurrection jutsu. How insolent."

"Then tell me Sarutobi. Does this mean that we are being forced to battle you?" asked the first Hokage.

"THAT IS IT!" everyone looked over at Hunter, who was now glowing with a black aura. "This is wrong wong wrong wrong WRONG! I'm going to put the both of you back in your graves! And then Orochimaru...I'm going to rip your heart right out of your chest!" Hunter grabbed hold of the chain on his right arm and started swinging in round in a circle until it was moving so fast it was just a grey blur.

"But first thing's first! 'Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall'!"

Hunter was about to slam his chain and hook into the barrier when the Third Hokage yelled "Hunter stop!"

The chain instantly lost all its momentum and fell to the ground, the hook crushing several tile under it.

"What!?" asked Hunter, sounding a tad annoyed.

"Hunter, listen very carefully. Right now the people of this village need your help more than I do. You must go down to the village and help repel the invasion."

Hunter let out a growl of frustration "You're not the boss of me old timer! Heck, sometimes I'm not the boss of me."

"You should do what the Hokage tells you." said one of the ANBU.

"Why? I'm not a ninja and he's not my Hokage. I don't have to do anything he says."

"Very well, seeing as how I can't order you, then I'll ask you. Hunter, please help save my village, and the people in it. Their lives are more valuable than mine."

Hunter looked back at the battle that was slowly spreading through the village, then back at Sarutobi. "You sure about this. I know you're a tough old git but it's three against one and you're not exactly a spring chicken."

"He has a point Sarutobi." agreed the First Hokage.

The Second nodded slightly "You may need assistance against the three of us."

"Ha! I may be old but I'm not dead just yet."

Hunter let out a defeated sigh "Ah snap. Alright old timer, you win." He ran over to the edge of the roof and selected a spot to jump to. Before he left he looked back and said "If you die on me old man I swear I'll kill you. Got it!?"

Then he jumped off the roof, aiming to land directly on a group of sound ninjas.

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

_On top of the Hokage Monument_

"This is interesting." said Thorn as he watched the invasion from his perch at the edge of the mountain. He wasn't talking about the invasion itself, which was quite unremarkable as far as he was concerned. What he was referring to was the action of his Heartless. As a creature of Darkness it should have either left or attempted to destroy the village itself, instead it was helping to defend it. Why? How was it different from other Heartless? Simply gaining sapience should not account for such a-

"Well what do we have here?"

Thorn's train of thought was disrupted by a group of ten sound ninja plus eight Sand ninja that were standing behind him. They hadn't snuck up on him, he just hadn't cared enough to acknowledge them.

"Just what are you doing all the way up here on your own anyway?" continued the lead sound ninja.

Thorn ignored him and continued watching the invasion. Needless to say, the sound ninja was not happy with Thorns attitude "Hey! I asked you a question!"

"He doesn't look like a Leaf Shinobi." said one of the sand ninja.

"Doesn't matter." retorted another "He's not one of ours, then he dies."

"Will you all please be quiet." said Thorn, turning around to face them. "You're distracting me."

"Ha! Arrogant little git aren't you." the lead ninja pulled a kunai out of his back pocket and threw it at Thorn's head. He didn't even flinch as the knife passed right through him, much to the confusion of the sound ninjas. Not one to be put off the same ninja who just thrown the kunai tossed a large windmill shuriken that was supposed to have taken Thorn's head off. Instead it just phased harmlessly through his throat and flew off into the distance.

Thorn closed his eyes "Fools."

With a flick of the wrist he produced a blue card from inside his sleeve, which he then placed on the ground. The card started to glow white and glowing lines started to appear in the air above it, forming a digital outline of a humanoid creature. It wasn't very tall, no more than five feet. It had pink skin with a texture similar to rubber. It had read eyes with black sclera set in a head that was about the same size as its torso. Instead of hair it had a thick antenna that started just above its forehead the bent over the top of its head and came back nearly to the base of its skull.

Its cloths consisted of white baggy pants held in place by a black belt that had a large metal buckle with a stylised 'M' on it. It had two identical black arm binders on its forearms with matching black boots.

"What kind of summon is that?" asked one of the sound ninja.

"Data Kid Buu." Thorn pointed at the ninja squad "Terminate."

The data copy of Kid Buu smiled evilly "Me Buu." it had a malevolent voice with a distorted tinge to it, like a bad recording.

"Kill you."

_Back in the Leaf_

"Haha! I got another one!" declared a Sound ninja as the kunai he'd just thrown hit a Leaf chunin in the back.

"Will you please try and act more professional." scolded his team leader. The group of sand and sound shinobi had been making their way through the village for a good ten minutes now and had so far encountered little resistance. Most of them thought this was a sign that victory was at hand, but the more experienced ones knew that this battle was only just getting started and it wouldn't be long before the element of surprise wore off and the Leaf really started fighting back.

"Check that building over there! The rest of you, keep on the lookout for-"

"SAVAGE CLAW MODE!"

Something darted between three ninjas, all of whom fell to the ground seconds later, clutching at slash marks on their bodies.

"What was-!?"

"Over here!" All the assembled enemy nin turned round and saw a boy with spiky black hair standing right behind them.

Hunter smirked at them as his arm changed back to normal. "I love doing that. Now prepare to be turned into sushi!"

He charged forwards, dodging knives and shuriken then he sprang forwards and slammed into a ninja in a flying rugby tackle. The two of them crashed to the ground with Hunter on top. He raised both his fists above his head then brought them down on the sound ninjas chest with enough force to break the ground beneath them.

Hunter jumped off the now unconscious sound ninja and yelled "Blizzara!" Three bolts of ice shot out from his palm, two of which managed to hit their targets turning them to human ice sculptures, the last one missed and ended up freezing a shop front.

'Note to self. Work on aiming' thought Hunter as he kicked a sand ninja in the stomach. He flung out one of his chains that wrapped around a sound ninjas torso, then he swung the chin to the left, smashing the man into a wall and dragging him through the front of several buildings before the chain let go, sending the man flying.

Another ninja tried to attack from behind. Hunter let him get close then he smacked him aside with his tail that suddenly grew out of his back.

"What the!? What are you!?" demanded one of the remaining sound ninjas.

Hunter gave his tail a few experimental swishes "Right now? I'm an ally of the Leaf. And a nightmare to you!"

"He's just one man you idiots!" yelled another ninja, evidently more seasoned than the rest. "Get him!"

All the remaining ninjas charged at Hunter from all sides. "Reflect!" they all hit the translucent shield at the same time. Hunter had just enough time to yell out "BOOM, BABY!" before the shield exploded, sending sound ninjas flying in all directions. Targeting the one directly in front of him Hunter sprang forwards and grabbed the man mid flight and the two ended up crashing into the Ichiraku's Ramen bar.

Hunter noticed Ayame and her father Teuchi hiding behind the counter. "Sorry about this." he said earnestly. Then he had to duck to avoid a slash from the sound ninja. The man came at him again with the kunai but Hunter blocked it and punched the man in the jaw. He fell to the left and collapsed on top of the counter that the two chefs were hiding under. Hunter hopped over to the other side of the bar and grabbed hold of the half conscious sound ninja.

"Would you like to sample the ramen sir!?" Hunter dunked the man's face into a cooking pot full of boiling ramen. After about five seconds Hunter let him go and the man jumped bolted upright screaming at the top of his lungs and trying to get the hot liquid out of his eyes.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" yelled the sound ninja. He drew another kunai and lunged at Hunter, who ducked down at the same time Ayame swung a frying pan at the back of his head. Instead of hitting Hunter as she'd planned it caught the sound ninja square in the face, knocking him out.

Hunter stood back up and nodded in approval "Nice swing-ow!" he was cut off when Ayame hit him over the head with her frying pan, and her father started throwing various pots and utensils at him. "Ow-hey-ow! Will-Ow-you-Ouch! Stop...KNOCK IT OFF!" Ayame and her father both stopped.

"Thank you. I'm on your side now. Me and Kakashi called a truce."

The mention of Kakashi's name seemed to convince Ayame a little but both her and her father remained wary.

"What's happening out there?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious? You're under attack."

Ayame looked down at the unconscious ninja. "That man...he's a sound ninja. It's the Hidden Sound?" she was more surprised than afraid. From what she'd heard from the restaurants ninja clients the Hidden Sound village was new and relatively small in size, they shouldn't have the man power for something like this.

"Not just them. It's the sand guys too, they're both in cahoots apparently."

That raised even more questions. The Sand and Leaf village had been at peace for years, why attack now?

"We need to go." said Teuchi. "There's a shelter in the Hokage Monument in case of invasion."

Hunter shook his head "Bad idea. This place is crawling with bad guys. You won't make it three blocks. Best thing you can do is hide here and keep quiet until this is all over."

They didn't seem too happy about the idea but they didn't argue.

Hunter left the ramen bar. And instantly wished he'd stayed inside.

"Oh Snap."

More sand and sound ninja had arrived. There were about ten of them up on the roofs and close to twenty more at street level. They didn't seem to concerned about helping their defeated comrades, who they'd left where they'd fallen.

"Ok, new plan." replied Hunter as he let a summon charm drop out of his sleeve and into his hand. "Scream and call for help."

The charm glowed brightly and disappeared. There was a loud honk like a truck horn then something large materialised a short way down the street. It took Hunter a moment to realise that it was in fact a truck, well a strange futuristic looking truck at any rate, and it was driving straight at the sound ninjas. Modern trucks are large and blocky things, this one was more angular, like a fusion of truck and sports car. The cabin section was painted bright red and the rear was predominantly blue.

None of the sound ninjas had ever seen a motor vehicle, as they didn't exist in this world, and thought for some reason that they could stop it by throwing kunai and shuriken at it. By the time they realised that their ninja tools were no good it was too late and the truck managed to run over five of them before the rest jumped out of the way. The truck skidded to a halt and then it-

TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE

Then it changed...transformed into a giant humanoid robot. It raised its left arm, which changed into a cannon, and started shooting at the sound ninjas, blasting them off the rooftops. Four of them leapt at the machine but before they got close it bated them away with its free arm.

On hearing all the commotion outside Ayame and her father cautiously emerged to see what was happening. Hunter and the two ramen chefs were just standing there staring is disbelief as the robot continued to take down the ninjas with ease.

"You guys are seeing this to?" asked Hunter. Ayame and Teuchi both nodded dumbly. "Good, then I'm not imagining this. A giant robot fighting ninjas. The weirdness level just went to Defcon Two."

Most of the enemy ninjas were now lying on the ground either groaning in pain or unconscious. Realising that they'd lost the last two men standing turned and ran off. They didn't get very far. The robot blasted the roof they were standing on with its laser cannon, the force of the explosion knocking them off their feet and sent them crashing to the street.

With the last enemies neutralised the robot changed its gun arm back to normal and walked over to Hunter, Ayame and Teuchi. Once it was close enough to them it knelt down so that its face was just above them.

"Greetings humans." it said in a deep and authoritative voice. "I take it you are the one who used the summon charm?"

"Um...yes. I-I'm Hunter. This is Ayame and her dad Teuchi."

"My name is Optimus Prime. I am a autonomous robotic life form from the planet Cybertron. An 'Autobot' for short." Prime stood up slightly and looked around. "I believe that a situation report is called for."

"Ok, here goes. These guys" Hunter pointed at the defeated ninjas "are from some place called the 'Hidden Sound'. They're invading this village along with the 'Hidden Sand'. It's all been set up by some nut called Orochimaru who wants to live forever, wipe this place of the map 'cause of some grudge he's got, and maybe rule the world at some point. Guys like him normally want world domination."

Prime nodded as he processed this information "Hmmm. This 'Orochimaru' sound similar to another being on my world. He also desires domination and war above all else."

A loud crash off in the distance brought everyone back to the present.

"Right. You two, back inside. Me and Prime will take care of things. Now let's see...hmm." Hunter looked ahead through the village, his Heartless vision letting him see through walls and obstacles. Most of the fighting now seemed to be taking place on street level and on the main roads. He looked up at Optimus and quickly compared him to the width of the road.

"Yes...that might work. Prime, get down here." The giant robot leaned in close "Here's what we're gunna do."

_Further away along the main road._

"Mind destruction jutsu!"

A sand ninja that had been about to attack Inoichi stopped in his tracks and turned on his comrade. Nearby the rest of team Ino-Shika-Cho were also fighting, putting their clans signature jutsu's to good use.

Shikaku had seven ninjas caught in a multi shadow possession jutsu, which he followed up with the Shadow-Neck Binding Technique, strangling them all with his shadow.

Chōza had used his expansion jutsu to grow to the size of a four story building and was currently stomping his way through the ranks of the sound and sand ninjas.

Looking up Inoich saw more sound ninjas gathering on the rooftop above them. He was about to use another mind destruction when two spiralling figures slammed into the enemy ranks. As soon as they stopped spinning they were revelled to be Tsume Inuzuka and her ninja dog Kuromaru.

"Inoichi!" yelled Tsume. She paused to kick a sound ninja in the gut, then throw him off the roof. "I thought you three would have beaten more of them by now! Getting slow in your old age!?"

"That's rich from a woman who took **twenty minutes** to get here!" Shikaku shot back.

That was when the enemy reinforcements showed up. About thirty more Sand ninajs appeared in the street below, surrounding Inocihi and Shikaku. More sound ninjas had come to, they'd landed on the roof on either side of Tsume and her daughter.

"This could be quite a fight" growled Kuromaru.

"It's over." taunted one of the sound ninjas. "You and your village are de-"

HONK HONK!

A bright red and blue truck suddenly appeared at the other end of the street. It ran over several ninjas before the rest managed to jump to the safety of the rooftops. They didn't stay up there for long though. Being pulled along behind the truck by one of his chains was Hunter. He aimed his free hand up at the sound ninjas and started firing off ice blasts, then he swung himself up to the rooftop and, still attached to the truck, he kicked a sound ninja in the face.

"DOWN IN FRONT! he yelled.

Tsume, Hana and their dogs jumped back as Hunter shot by, smashing his way through the sound and sand's ranks. When he reached the end of the roof he jumped back down to the street.

"WAHOO! FASTER PRIME! PEDAL TO METAL! YEHAA!"

The truck turned a corner and in seconds both it and Hunter were gone, though they could still hear him yelling at whoever was driving to go faster.

"I...I ...Did you all see that too?" asked Hana. Everyone else nodded dumbly, unable to quite accept what they'd just witnessed.

_With Prime and Hunter_

"Heads up!" yelled Hunter as he jumped up and kicked yet another ninja off a roof. He spun in mid air and fired two ice bolts at the roof opposite, freezing a group of sound ninjas. While he was up there he spotted the three giant snakes that had been summoned at the start of the invasion. Well, there had been three, one was now crushed under a giant toad that had two equally massive blades strapped to its back. Focusing on the toad Hunter could see Jiraya standing atop its head.

"Two against one. Hardly fair. Prime! You up for taking out a giant snake!?"

"If it will help stop this destruction, yes! I take it you have another 'plan'!?"

Hunter smiled at that "You bet! Just keep driving straight and whatever you do. Don't slow down!"

Prime complied and accelerated down the street.

"Ok, three...two..." Hunter open up a black portal in front of Prime, who drove straight into it, dragging Hunter behind him. They reappeared in mid air above one of the snake's heads. Prime transformed and brought out a massive double bladed axe and slammed it down into the creatures head. The monster snake fell crashing to the ground with an almighty thud. Prime landed right in front of it, still holding his energon axe. Hunter dropped down next to him seconds later.

"That...was...INCREDABLE!" he looked round at the giant snake's corpse "That is going to look great over my mantelpiece." then the body vanished in a huge puff of smoke, leaving Hunter disappointed. "Snap."

Jiraya had watched all this from where he stood atop his summoned toad. And despite the fact he'd just seen it he still couldn't quite believe it.

"That kid again!? Well...this blows my theory about him working for Orochimaru out of the water." The old sage looked back at the last remaining snake. "Alright Gamahiro, let's finish this last one off!"

"Hunter! Over there!" Prime pointed to the woods that lay to the west of the village. Hunter saw what looked like a giant raccoon-dog hybrid made entirely out of sand. Standing just across from it was a gigantic toad holding a sword. Focusing on its head Hunter could see Naruto standing on top of it.

"Don't worry Prime. Someone else has it covered." Hunter sensed a group of sand ninjas approaching. "Now let's get back to beating the crap out of these sand weasels!"

"I'm afraid I don't have much time left to aid you Hunter." said Prime as he readied his axe.

"Then make every second count."

That was when the sand ninja squad arrived.

"What the hell is that!?" asked one upon seeing Optimus.

"Doesn't matter" said another "We kill 'em both and move on to our target. Go!"

The sound ninjas jumped off the roof and charged straight at Hunter and Optimus, throwing shuriken and explosive tagged kunai. Prime lifted his axe and slammed it into the ground creating an energy shockwave that blasted them all back. Hunter jumped up above them all and fired several blizzard spells that froze most of them to the ground. One of the ninjas that hadn't been frozen threw an exploding kunai at him. It hit Hunter while he was still in mid air and detonated. The ninja thought for a second that he'd killed his target until Hunter dropped out of the smoke cloud and punched him into the ground.

"I'm really starting to hate those exploding tags." he muttered.

"Hunter" he looked up at Optimus. "I'm out of time."

"Kay. Thanks for the help Prime. 'till next time ."

Prime nodded as his form started to glow "Till all are one."

The Autobot leader's body continued to glow brighter, then it shifted back into the summon charm which flew back into Hunter's hand. After putting the charm away he leapt up onto the roof of a partially demolished building and started looking around the village.

The balance had shifted in the leafs favour. It's elite ninjas were on the warpath and the sand and sound were getting their backsides handed to them in just about every fight. With the element of surprise gone and their momentum lost they were starting to fall back.

Outside of the leaf the giant toad and the sand monster were gone. Hunter could see Naruto and Gaara, and from the looks of it their fight had ended in somewhat of a draw. Something seemed different about Gaara's heart though.

Hunter tensed up when he sensed someone land next to him, but then he relaxed a little when he realised who it was.

"Ibiki, hey. Looks like we've won."

Ibiki looked out at the Leaf. "The enemy is retreating, but that doesn't mean we've won yet. Still, I feel I should thank you for your help. You've saved a lot of lives today."

"Does that mean you lot will stop trying to kill me now?"

As if to answer his question four ANBU ninjas appeared around him and pointed their swords at his chest.

"Snap." Hunter was about to cast an ice spell when he felt something. Something unnatural. It was like when Orochimaru had resurrected the Hokage's, only the feeling was much more intense this time. He looked over that the battle arena.

Ibiki saw the expression on his face. "What is it?"

Hunter didn't say anything at first. "Sarutobi." then he leapt away before the ANBU could stop him and started running back to the arena. He was too late though.

When he got back the barrier was down and the whole roof had been covered in a huge tree and its roots. Orochimaru was gone, and so were his guards, although he had left behind the bodies of Kin and Zaku which were both lying in separate piles of dust. The only ones left were two ANBU ninjas, who were standing over the body of Hiruzan Sarutobi.

Hunter could tell he was dead. There was no Heart in his body anymore. It looked so empty without it. He could sense other ninjas approaching. He didn't want to deal with them so he teleported away to the forest outside the village. He stood still of a few seconds, then the threw back his head, opened his mouth, which changed into a black jagged line and roared. His tail grew out of his back and started thrashing wildly,carving out deep gouges in the earth. A violent black aura appeared around him and the wind picked up significantly. After about three minutes of this he calmed down and changed back to normal.

"Orochimaru...you're gunna pay for this. Just you wait."

_The next day._

Rain poured down steadily for the cloud covered sky as the Hidden Leaf village mourned the loss of its Third Hokage. The entire village had turned out to pay their respects to the man who'd been their leader, and in many cases their friend.

Hunter was there too. Well, he wasn't with the others, he was sitting up on one of the tall buildings that overlooked the village and watching the funeral.

RING RING

Hunter pulled the phone out of his pocket and held it up to his ear. "You have a lousy sense of timing. You know that?"

"Hunter. Do you have any new status updates?" asked Diz.

"There was an...There was an invasion yesterday. And before you ask. No. It wasn't the Nobodies. It was some nut called-"

"You didn't interfere did you?"

"Damb right I interfered! I'm not just going to sit around and watch while-"

"Hunter!" DiZ cut him off again "You're mission is to find the Nobodies in that world. Anything else is not your business."

"One of my friends died."

"I would hardly call them 'friends'. They have not seen the real you, have they?"

Hunter tightened his grip on the phone "That 'thing' is not me!"

"Isn't it? You've-"

Hunter ended the call. Seconds later the phone started ringing again.

"Not so nice when it happens to you, is it?" he asked smugly.

"Hello Hunter."

Hunter was so surprised by the voice next to him he fell off the roof and landed face first on the ground. After dusting himself off he jumped back up to his previous position and found a guilty looking Naminé standing there.

"Sorry" she said sheepishly.

"No harm done. Total invincibility, one of the many perks of being like this." Hunter sat down where he had been and Naminé went to sit next to him.

"I take it DiZ doesn't know you're here?"

Naminé shook her head.

"Well. What he don't know won't hurt him. Right?"

She smiled at that, then she reached round behind her and brought out two blue ice creams, offering one to Hunter. He took it and gingerly took a bite.

Naminé started eating hers, then she noticed Hunter staring at the ice cream.

"You don't like it?"

"What? No. No, it's not that. Apparently I've got no taste buds anymore. So while I'm sure this is delicious I can't ...taste it. Or anything else for that matter."

"Oh. Um. If it helps it tastes salty and sweet."

Hunter closed his eyes and tried to imagine the taste, then he took another bite out of the ice cream.

"Mmmm. Oh yeah, this is the best thing I've never tasted in my life."

Both of the laughed, then they went back to their ice creams.

"I'm sorry about your friend." said Naminé.

"Thanks." Hunter looked down at the funeral that was still going on. "Maybe DiZ is right. If they knew what I really am they'd run on sight. No wonder Naruto hasn't told 'em."

He noticed Naminé giving him a questioning look. "Naruto is someone I know from here. He's got this giant monster thing locked up inside him that only the older people know about."

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's called the 'Nine Tailed Fox'. It's sort of like Godzilla's pet poodle."

Naminé giggled at that. Hunter laughed too.

"Thanks for this Naminé. It's nice to do something normal."

"Yes. I know how you feel." she finished her ice cream and stood up. "Take care of yourself."

"Don't worry. The crisis is over and things are settling down. I've got a feeling it'll be smooth sailing from now on."

_Hidden Cloud Village. Rikage's office._

The Fourth Raikage, Ay, was sitting at his desk and reading a report from his operatives in the Hidden Leaf village.

"Is this accurate?" he asked.

"As far as we can tell yes." answered one of the Clouds Jōnin.

Ay skimmed over the report once again "An unknown kekkei genkai. A jutsu that affects time. Possibly a **Jinchuriki**." he put the report down and stood up. "Start assembling a team. We must find this 'Hunter' and bring him here. We cannot allow another village to posses this kind of power."

_Hidden Stone village. Tsuchikage's office._

"Are we certain that this report is true?" asked Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage.

"Yes. I know it's seems unbelievable but our agents would not make something like this up." said one of the Stone ninja present.

Ōnoki smile to himself. "Gather a stealth team, and send them to the Land of Fire. I want this 'Hunter' either captured or killed. We can't allow a power like this to exist outside our village. Especially not one so close to the Leaf."

_Unknown Location_

"Are we sure about this?" asked a tall man wearing a black robe, covered in red clouds.

"My spy network is certain of it." responded a smaller man who was hunched over. He wore the same black and red cloak as the others.

"He can't be a Jinchuriki." insisted another "We already know all their identities and he isn't one of them. Perhaps your spy network isn't all it's cracked up to be Sasori."

"That's enough Hidan."

All eight people present looked up at the giant humanoid hologram of their leader. It was completely featureless apart from its eyes, which were purple with a ripple pattern. A few of the others present were also represented by similar holograms. They very rarely met in the flesh all at once.

"This 'Hunter' may not be a Jinchuriki, but he has an interesting set of abilities that could prove useful to us."

"So, you want us to capture him too?" asked Hidan.

"Eventually yes but he is merely a target of opportunity. Right now our priority remains the capture of all the tailed beasts."

"There's a good chance that we won't be able to bring him in alive. Will that be an issue?" asked Kakuzu, Hidan's teammate.

The Leader's hologram paused for a moment before replying "No. We can still recover his jutsu's secrets from his body."

_Back with Hunter in the Hidden Leaf_

"AAAAACHHOO!"

Naminé looked over at Hunter, who'd just let out a colossal sneeze. "You know, some people say that when you sneeze, it means that someone's talking about you."

Hunter gave her a 'yeah, right' look "Come on Naminé, that's just a superstition."

* * *

'Smooth sailing from now on'...that's right up there with 'It couldn't possibly get any worse'. Tune in next time when the Hidden Villages send their teams out to capture Hunter, and inadvertently push him into letting out more of his Heartless side.

Till all are one (Couldn't resist)


	10. Chapter 10

Welcome to chapter 10. This is going to be the first Hunter vs jinchuriki fight and I hope it meats everyone's expectations.

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 10

"You want me to what!?" exclaimed Jiriya.

It had been two days since the Sand and Sound invasion and the Hidden leaf was still reeling from devastation. Despite the valiant attempts of the village's defenders, which surprisingly included a wanted criminal, many lives had still been lost including the village leader, the Third Hokage. Jiriya hadn't been surprised when the village council had sent for him, nor when they told him that they had a successor in mind.

He had been surprised when they told him that they wanted him to be the next Hokage. He supposed that in their minds it made sense, he had been one of Sarutobi's students when he was young and he was a powerful and (sometimes) wise ninja. Still, Jiriya knew that he could never be the Hokage, he was far too impatient and unreliable. Plus he'd be too tempted to use that crystal ball in the Hokage's office to spy on the women in the hot springs.

He explained this to the council, minus the peeping part of course. They were less than pleased.

"If you're so set on having a Sanin as Hokage, there is another. You're forgetting Tsunade." Jiriya added.

"She would make a capable Hokage." admitted an elderly woman "But no one knows where she is."

"I'm sure I could dig her up. What do you say?"

Perched up above them all a small Creeper sifted it's body to a bird like form and took flight. It had just passed over the edge of the building when something slammed into it and grabbed hold.

"Gotcha!" proclaimed Hunter as both he and the Nobody tumbled down to the ground. Hunter had timed this manoeuvre so that they would both end up in the alley behind the building. The less people knew of the Nobodies, the better.

The instant they landed the Creeper managed to wiggle free of his grip. It morphed it's body into a sword and took a swing at Hunter, forcing him to jump back. The now sword-like Creeper hovered in mid air, aiming itself at Hunter in a threatening manner.

"Think you can take me? You and what army!"

Three Dusks appeared behind the Creeper along with a Dancer. One of the Dusks reached out and grabbed the Creeper-sword, giving it a few exaggerated twirls, then taking up an offensive stance.

"Me and my big mouth."

The sword wielding Dusk came at him, swinging its blade in powerful arcs that took large chunks out of the floor and walls. Hunter was forced back under the onslaught, then one of the other Dusks quickly slithered round behind him and rapidly expanding its head, smashing into Hunter's back. He was propelled forward straight into the sword wielder who knocked him high into the air with an upwards slash.

Hunter spun in mid air and summoned his chains, throwing them at the Dusks and destroying two of them. He fell back down to the ground and ran at the last Dusk, ducking under a sword swing and then blasting it point blank from behind with a Dark Bolt. The Creeper morphed back into its flying form and tried to escape but Hunter destroyed it with an upward chain swing.

The only Nobody left now was the Dancer, which hadn't moved from its original position. Hunter charged right at it, pulling back his arm ready to punch it. It nimbly side stepped him and tripped him up, then while he was falling it spun on the spot and smashed it's leg into his back. Hunter was thrust forwards and eventually came to a skidding halt out on the main street.

"Ouch" he muttered as he spat out some dirt. Looking over his shoulder he caught a glimpse of the Dancer blowing him a kiss as it teleported away. "Snap." that was when Hunter noticed people staring at him. At first they were all just startled by his sudden appearance, then they started to recognise him. Two nearby Chunin drew some kunai out of their pockets and threw them at Hunter.

"Double snap!" he yelled as he dodged the knives and started running. Wanting to lose them before more ninjas showed up Hunter ran straight at a wall and opened a dark portal at the last moment. As soon as he was through it closed and the two perusing ninjas ran straight into the unforgiving surface.

Hunter reappeared in a lightly wooded area that seemed to serve as some sort of training ground. Looking back he couldn't resist gloating. "Ha! Morons." He turned round, then froze.

Three genin were standing just a few feet away to his left. It took him a second to recognise them as Hinata, Shino and Kiba.

"Triple snap." he groaned.

"What the...hey, isn't that that Hunter guy?" asked Kiba.

"Yes, he matches the description" confirmed Shino "We should-"

"Alright!" Kiba yelled, cutting off Shino "When we bring him in we'll be village heroes!"

Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Don't be foolish." scolded Shino. "He took on four Jōnin level ninja at once, and he wasn't even trying."

Kiba looked like he was going to listen to reason for once, but Hunter just couldn't resist baiting him.

"Hey...Kiba was it. Your Tsume's son right?"

Kiba gave him his best feral grin "Yeah, she told me about her run in with you. I'm surprised you're still breathing. I wouldn't want to be you when she gets her hands on you."

"She'll have to get her hands on me first. Still, that woman scares the life out of me. Your sister on the other hand..."

Kiba stopped grinning and his left eyebrow began twitching.

"...now she is just perfect. Gorgeous, strong, likes animals. Do you know if she's single?"

By now Kiba was snarling at him while clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Grrrrr! That's enough out of you! Let's go Akamaru!" the genin and his dog charged at Hunter, ignoring a warning cry from Shino and Hinata. Just as they both leapt at him Hunter ducked and they both crashed into each other.

"I don't see why you're getting so worked up." said Hunter as Kiba and Akamaru got back on their feet. "It was an honest question. There a reason I couldn't date her?"

"Keep dreaming! You're not exactly her type anyway!"

Hunter shrugged "You never know, she might be into insane monster boys."

"Arrgh! That's it!" Kiba yelled angrily "Fang over Fang!" both he and Akamaru spun through the air towards Hunter who simply side stepped their attack and let them crash into the ground.

"Owww." groaned Kiba. He looked up at his team mates "Did I get him?"

"Um...no, you missed." said Hinata.

Hunter clapped his hands together, drawing everyone's gaze to him "Well, you guys have been fun, but I must make like a tree and Hidden Leaf!" then he turned and ran off into the woods.

"That was the worst joke ever! Well don't just stand there you two. After him!" Kiba ran after Hunter with Akamaru following on his heels.

"Kiba, stop!" yelled Shino but he didn't listen.

"W-what do we do S-shino?" asked Hinata.

"We go after Kiba, and make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

The two caught up with Kiba a few moments later as he was jumping through the tree tops.

"You guys came along after all. Didn't want me and Akamaru hogging all the glory huh?"

"Kiba, we have to stop now!" demanded Shino. "We're no match for Hunter. We need to go back to the village and inform the-"

"Bark!"

Kiba came to a halt on a large tree branch. "Are you sure?"

Akamaru sniffed the air and barked again.

"He says that Hunter's scent trail ends right here." The all looked around, expecting to be attacked at any moment.

"Could he be camouflaging his scent somehow?" asked Shino.

"Well, yeah it's possible but he can't have had the time to- wait!" a rustling noise came from the canopy of leaves above them. Kiba instinctively threw a kunai up into the leaves. Something small and black darted down at him and went straight for his face.

"MEEOOWW!"

"ARRGH! What the!? Get off!" Kiba grabbed hold of the thing and threw it away. It landed on a smaller branch nearby. It was a black cat.

"Just a cat." muttered Shino.

"A vicious rabid evil cat." growled Kiba as he rubbed the scratch marks on his face.

The cat arched it's back and hissed at them.

"Hunter's not here" said Shino "He probably used that teleport jutsu to escape. We need to report this, let's go."

Shino headed back towards the village, with Kiba and Hinata following close behind him.

"Humph. If I ever see that guy again I'll show him just what an Inuzuka can do. Right Akamaru!"

The cat stayed where it was, licking its left paw for a moment. When it was sure they were gone it stopped licking and smiled to itself.

"Suckers." it said in Hunters voice.

After giving the three genin a long enough head start he graceful leapt down to ground level and, still in his new cat form, began opening a black portal back to the village.

"Who's a pretty kitty? I'm a pretty kitty. Hehehe." he giggled as he disappeared. Naturally he felt very pleased with himself for having out foxed the three young ninjas and he imagined that right now they were heading back to their village to report on their failure.

That's not exactly what happened to them though.

_With team 8. One their way back to Konoha._

"I still say we could have taken him if you two would have just backed me up." said Kiba.

"S-sorry Kiba but-"

"Don't apologise Hinata." said Shino. "Kiba, Hunter has taken on some of the best ninja in our village, he's even evaded the Hokage. It wouldn't have mattered if we'd worked together. We're simply no match for him."

"Alright, alright already! Seesh Shino, you really need to lighten-Whoa!" the group stopped in their tracks on some tree branches.

Standing on a branch in front of them was Hunter. Well, it looked like Hunter.

'Was he wearing a blue scarf before?' thought Hinata.

"Well, we found you after all!" declared Kiba.

'Hunter' ignored him and just continued starting at them all. "You should not be here." he finally said.

'He sounds different. Colder.' thought Shino.

"What do you mean 'we should not be here'!?" said Kiba, angrily. "You're the intruder in OUR village. You're the one who's not supposed to be here!" When 'Hunter' didn't respond it made Kiba even angrier. "Are you even listening man!"

"Um. Kiba. M-maybe we should go." stammered Hinata. Something about 'Hunter's' demeanour was unsettling.

"What!? Are you really going to take orders from him? It's four against one. We can probably strangle him with that dorky scarf!"

'Hunter' tilted his head to one side. "Two corrections. First, I am not Hunter. My name is Thorn." that earned a confused look from every member of team eight. "Second. This is not a scarf."

The four ends of Thorn's 'scarf' sprang to life and shot towards the genin. They barely had enough time to get out of the way, each point smashing into the tree branch where they'd just been. Thorn raised his arms and said "Fira". Four balls of fire, each one the size of a beach ball, appeared around him, then they flew towards the genin.

"Incoming!" yelled Kiba as they all avoided this second attack, the fire balls exploding where they had just been.

'He seems to specialise in ranged ninjutsu' though Shino.

"Let's go Akamaru!" yelled Kiba. "Fang over Fang!" the young Inuzuka and his dog spun through the air towards Thorn. They were just about to hit him when he muttered "Reflectra." instantly a transparent shield made of hexagons appeared around him, which Kiba and Akamaru slammed into. On impact the shield exploded, sending the pair flying backwards, crashing through several tree branches.

"Kiba! Akamaru!" Hinata cried.

'This is bad' thought Shino. Then the smoke around where Thorn was dispersed. He was gone.

"Where'd he-"

"Here." before Shino could turn round Thorn landed a chop on his neck that paralysed him. Shino lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Thorn jumped down after him and landed close by. He looked down at Shino, who was still paralysed, and then over to Kiba and Akamaru, who were trying to get back up. The only one left now was Hinata, who was standing a few feet away in her clans signature 'gentle fist' stance.

"Two choices." said Thorn "You can fight. You'll lose and will be hurt. Or. You can help your friends. And I will leave."

It didn't take long for Hinata to weigh up her options. Thorn had taken down her teammates without even breaking a sweat, he wouldn't have any more trouble defeating her. She ran over to Kiba and helped him up, supporting him on her shoulder.

"Good choice." Thorn was about to leave when something occurred to him.

"Hinata." the girl looked up at him nervously "It's strange. But you and I have something in common. I want to be like Naruto to." then he disappeared into a black portal, leaving behind a very confused and battered team eight.

_Back in the hidden Leaf_

'Yeah. This is my best disguise yet.' thought Hunter as he walked through the streets of Konoha, still in his cat form. Since he'd got back to the village no one had so much as looked twice at him, he could scour the whole village for Nobodies and no one would be any the wiser.

'No more running and hiding. No more getting chased by ninjas. Why didn't I think of this sooner?'

Hunter was currently walking through an empty side street, heading in the direction of the Hokage monument. He was about to step out onto the main street when another cat came tearing round the corner and crashed into him.

"Meeeeoowww!" yelled the other cat.

"Hey! **You're** the one who ran into **me, **furball." that was when Hunter saw the purple ribbon tied around the cat's ear. He realised he'd seen this cat before, the one that had been running from that rich looking lady. Tora was what she'd called it.

Tora was a little surprised when she heard this other cat talking like a human, but she'd lived in or around ninja villages for most of her life, and was well used to the idea of people turning into animals.

Tora gave a few more meows that roughly translated "Hello. I am Tora. Cat of the Fire Daimyo."

"Hi Tora. I'm Hunter. Listen, I don't suppose you've seen anything strange going on around this village lately?"

"Meow maow meow." '_This is an ninja village. There's always something strange going on.'_

"I mean stranger than normal."

Tora sighed to herself "Meow." '_I can't stay here chatting all day, I've got to-"_

That's when they both heard someone yelling "TOOOORRRRAAAA!?" off in the distance.

Tora winced "Meow." '_Ugh. That woman.'_

That gave Hunter an idea. "Ok Tora, here's the deal. You help me and I'll get crazy lady off your case for a while."

Tora needed no further encouragement and she quickly began meowing everything she knew. '_Well, I have seen some strange people about town. They look like people anyway but there's always something off about them. They don't seem to go anywhere they just walk around town for a while then disappear. Oh and something else. Two shinobi arrived today. Powerful, dangerous, scary looking. I don't know where they are now.'_

Hunter soaked in all this information and nodded. "Thanks. Now, Time for me to uphold my end." with that he changed his shape so he now looked exactly like Tora. After recovering from the initial shock the real Tora started admiring her doppelgangers appearance.

"Hey." hissed Hunter "You can admire your reflection later. Hide!"

Tora ducked into a small gap between two houses just as her 'owner', the fire daimyos wife, came round the corner.

"Oh, there you are my precious kitty kitty!" she declared in her annoyingly shrill voice.

Hunter turned and bolted, with the daimyos wife in hot pursuit. As soon as they were both gone Tora emerged from her hiding place and nimbly jumped up onto the roof tops, intending to take a very long cat nap.

Hunter meanwhile lead the daimyos wife on a merry chase through the village. Somehow the plump woman was able to keep pace with him no matter where he went. It was almost impressive. Eventually he managed to lose her by changing back into a black cat when she wasn't looking. All Hunter had to do was stand around and act like a regular cat and she ran right past him, still yelling "Tooorrra!?" at the top of her lungs.

'Well that should buy Tora a well earned rest' he thought. 'Now let's see if I can find those two ninjas she talked about.' he jumped up onto a nearby roof in a single bound, then he sat down, closed his eyes and focused all his senses. His cat ears twitched as he listened to events happening all over the village.

"Two beef ramens. Here you go." that was Ayame's voice. Not what he was after.

"Careful with that! A little to the left now! I said left!" he didn't recognise the voice but it was coming from the area where the giant snakes went on the rampage. Hunter reasoned that whoever it was was part of a construction team trying to repair the damage done in the invasion.

"Kakashi! What is it? Can we open our eyes now?" that was Kureni's voice, and she sounded nervous. Maybe even a little afraid. Hunter focused his hearing on her location.

"No...not yet..." Hunter barely recognised that voice as Kakashi's. It sounded ragged and he was breathing heavily like he was in pain.

"What just happened!?" that voice Hunter knew belonged to Asuma "One second the guy's talking and the next second you hit the ground!"

Hunter opened his eyes and zoomed in on their location. He could see Kakashi, Kureni and Asuma all standing in a river the flowed through some kind of storm drain. Facing them were two others that could only be the two shinobi Tora had told him about.

Hunter changed back to his Human form and jumped through a black portal. In the second it took him to appear Might Guy had shown up as well and was now standing with the other three Leaf jōnin. Hunter had appeared on the bank to their left and so far no one had seen him.

"I don't believe it!" he yelled causing everyone too look at him in surprise. "You four are fighting someone else. On the side! I thought we had something special. What do those guys have that I don't?" Hunter got his first good look at the two mystery ninajs. One was an ordinary enough looking man with black hair, but he had strange red eyes with three black dots around each pupil. The other one was a million miles from ordinary. He was a tall man and looked like a human-shark hybrid. He was carrying a large sword that was partially covered in bandages. The part that was showing wasn't a blade, instead it was made up of sharp metal scales.

"This one looks familiar Itachi." said the fish man.

"Yes. He matches the description we were given." agreed Itachi "You. You are Hunter. Correct?"

"The one and only. I see my reputation precedes me."

The shark man laughed at that "Hahah. Hey, he's a 'target of opportunity' right? I'd call this a good opportunity, right Itachi?"

"Very well. But finish him quickly Kisame."

Kisame dashed towards Hunter, swinging his massive sword round to cleave him in half. Hunter blocked it with his arm, sparks flying at the point of impact. Everyone was surprised to say the least. They'd all expected that Kisame's sword would slice through Hunter like butter.

'He must be using a jutsu to harden his skin' thought Kureni.

Hunter jumped to avoid another sword swing, then he spun in mid air as his tail emerged from his back. Kisame had to jump back to avoid getting impaled by the spikes.

"Huh!? A tail!" Kisame's surprise passed quickly and he went back to smiling menacingly "Well well, so you are a jinchuriki after all."

"I still don't know what that word means but, yeah sure. Let's go with that." Hunter dodged another sword swipe, then he broke away from Kisame and ran at Itachi.

"No Hunter wait! Don't look into his eyes!" warned Kakashi.

Too late.

Hunter abruptly came to a halt a short distance from the renegade Uchiha.

'Blast' thought Guy. 'Itachi has him in a genjutsu. This could get ugly.'

"Fool." muttered Itachi.

That was when Hunter shot forwards and punched Itachi in the gut, lifting him off his feet. Before he could follow this attack up Itachi burst into a flock of crows that flew a few feet away and then reformed into Itachi.

'He resisted the genjutsu' realised Itachi.

"Ha! Your jedi mind tricks won't work on me!" declared Hunter, triumphantly.

"This annoying brat resisted your sharingan? You must be losing you touch Itachi." taunted Kisame.

"Sharingan? You mean those red eyes." remarked Hunter, almost absent mindedly. "Hmm. Hey, that Sasuke kid has the same eyes!" Itachi twitched slightly "Are you two related?"

"Itachi is Sasuke's older brother." it was Asuma who answered. "He's also an S rank criminal, responsible for wiping out his entire clan."

"Lovely. I'm guessing that you and the fish stick aren't here for a family visit."

"Correct. And we've wasted enough time here already."

Kisame looked over at his partner "Seriously?"

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere!" said Hunter as he charged at Itachi again. The renegade Uchiha didn't move but Hunter saw his eyes change, the three black dots around his pupil grew, becoming scythe-like shapes that connected his pupils to his outer iris.

"Amaterasu."

Hunter stopped in his tracks as his left arm suddenly burst into black flames. He started waving it around in a vain attempt to put the flames out while yelling "Ouch ouch ouch ouch! Magic fire! Magic fire! Yeaoow!" eventually he dived into the river, vanishing beneath the surface.

"Something tells me that won't help." said Asuma. Then he noticed something strange happening on the water where Hunter had gone under. It was turning to ice, slowly at first but the ice was starting to spread and it was picking up speed.

"Move!" yelled Guy.

Everyone jumped off the water, the leaf jonin leaping backwards onto the right bank, while Kisame and Itachi landed on the left. Moments later the entire section of the river they'd been fighting on was solid ice.

"Is this Hunter's doing?" asked Kurenai.

That was when Hunter chose to re-emerge, punching his way out of the ice and pulling himself up onto the froze surface of the river. The first thing everyone noticed was that his arm was no longer wreathed in the black flames and apart from being soaking wet he didn't seem harmed.

"How did you extinguish the Amaterasu?" asked Itachi, genuinely interested for once.

"Magic fire." Hunter got up and pointed down at the river. "Magic ice. You do the math."

"Hmm. You certainly are...curious. We'll met again soon. Kisame. Come on."

The man-shark looked disappointed "Shame. This was just starting to get interesting."

Both of them body flickered away, leaving Hunter more than a little annoyed that his fun had been spoiled.

"Well, that's just plain rude. What happened to 'fighting to the bitter end'?"

While Hunter carried on ranting he failed to notice what was going on right behind him. Kakashi was being propped up by Kureni, only holding on to consciousness by sheer willpower. 'This...may be...our only chance.' With what little energy he had left Kakashi forced himself to stand on his own, then he charged at Hunter, creating a lightning cutter in his left hand.

"Kakashi don't!" yelled Guy. 'What is he thinking! He barely has enough energy to stand, using a chidori now could kill him!'

Hearing the commotion Hunter turned round just in time to see Kakashi slam a chidori into his chest. Apart from Hunter everyone present had seen the effects of the chidori before. It was a high level assassination jutsu that could cut through a person like a hot knife through butter. So it came as quite the surprise when the chidori didn't pass right through Hunter but it simply dispersed, the lightning covering his body.

Guy dashed forwards and pulled Kakashi away just as Hunter yelled out "THUNDRA!"

Hunter's body exploded with electricity. Rough bolts lanced out, shattering trees and blasting chunks out of the ground. The storm soon dissipated but flickers of lightning still played across Hunter body.

"Thanks for the power boost Kakashi." he said as he vanished into a black portal.

Kakashi finally lost consciousness and slumped forwards.

"This does not bode well." muttered Guy.

_A few miles away_

Hunter stepped out of his portal, still crackling with energy.

"Thunder magic...Shocking. Ha!" eventually the electricity died down and Hunter set off after Kisame and Itachi, in what he hoped was the right direction. He also made a mental note to get back at Kakashi for the attempted electrocution.

"Something involving makeup? Yes...and paint. Hehehe."

Hunter continued running in the direction he'd chosen but after a while he became aware that he was being followed. He could hear them moving through the trees, there were seven of them in total. Curiously they weren't trying to catch up with him, they were just keeping pace.

'Could be more leaf ninja. I'd better go faster.'

Hunter boosted his speed to supernatural levels, instantly he heard his unknown pursuers speed up too. Now they really were trying to catch up with him, having figure out he knew they were there.

Not being in the mood for a fight Hunter's plan was to continue running until they gave up. The plan kind of fell apart when he sensed another ninja team, this one ten strong, coming at him from the direction he was heading.

"Oh this is ridiculous!" he declared.

He came to a complete stop in the middle of the dirt road and stood there, arms crossed and drumming his fingers. Both teams soon caught up with him, but instead of jumping out at him they stayed hidden in the trees. Whether or not they were aware of each other he didn't know.

"Alright folks!" he announced loudly. "Hide and seek's over. All of you get down here now!"

Both teams complied, dropping down in front and behind him, apart from two who stayed hidden up in the branches. "I said 'all of you'!" realising they been spotted the last two ninjas joined their comrades on the ground.

Hunter looked between the two groups. The first thing he noted was that, according to their head bands, none of them were from the leaf, in fact both teams were from different villages. They all looked normal enough by ninja standards. Powerful, but nothing he hadn't faced before. The only oddity was one ninja in the squad behind him. From her position at the front of the group he guessed she was the leader. She had straight blond hair, a slim, angular face and dark eyes. Her cloths consisted of a short sleeved purple and black blouse, black pants with a red belt around her waist. She also wore purple fingerless gloves and had bandages wrapped around her forearms, along with a set of blue beads around her left forearm. And just like Gaara and Naruto, she had a second heart inside her, belonging to something much more powerful.

"You are the rouge nin known as Hunter." she said. It was a statement, not a question.

"Nah, my names Larry and I'm a rouge long distance sprinter."

"We know who you are!" this time it was someone from the opposing team that spoke. "Hunter's going with us. You Kumo guys already have two jinchuriki, this one's ours!"

"Dream on." said a male Kumo ninja "We've got our own jinchuriki here. Yugito Nii. Host of the Two Tails. You Iwa idiots are all just outclassed."

At the mention of Yugito's name several of the Iwa ninjas became very fearful. They hadn't been expecting another jinchuriki. The woman herself rolled her eyes and looked over at the man who'd revealed her identity.

"Well, there goes the element of surprise."

"'Scuse me?" said Hunter. "Do I get a say in proceedings here?"

Yugito gave Hunter a once over. He didn't look like a threat but part of being a ninja was to appear to be something you're not. In need of a better evaluation she decided to contact her resident tailed beast.

'_Matatabi.'_

_'__**I'm here kitten' **_replied the two tails _**'Need something?'**_

_'Yes. Can you tell which tailed beast Hunter has inside him. I want to know what we're up against if this gets out of hand.'_

Matatabi said nothing for a moment. '_**Hmmmm. It's strange. I can't sense any chakra, at all. Not from him or a tailed beast. He must be using some powerful suppressive seals.'**_

_'Can't you make contact with his tailed beast then?'_

_**'I've tried but there's been no answer. If one of my siblings is in there he doesn't want to be found.'**_

What neither Yugito or the Two Tails knew was that Hunter could listen in on their telepathic conversation. 'So now everyone thinks I'm one of these...Gin-and-tonic-y...whatever. I could just cast stop and keep on going but...this lot went through so much trouble to find me. I should give them something. A real fright.'

"You're all idiots." he said loudly enough for them, all to hear.

"What did you just say?" asked an Iwa ninja, threateningly.

"I called you idiots. I've run rings around the best guys the Hidden Leaf's got. I even gave their Hokage the slip more than once. And you lot think that you, _you_ can match up to me? This is the only warning you're gunna get. Stand up to the best and you'll fall like the rest."

The entire Iwa squad burst out laughing.

"Haha! If a loser like you can get the better of the Leaf's best ninja then their standards must have really dropped!"

Hunter crossed his arms in annoyance "Everyone's a critic. But you should really be scared." He turned to face Yugito "Just ask your 'tennant'."

Hunters eyes changed to glowing yellow. At first Yugito, and the other Kumo ninjas, believed this was some kind of kekkei genkai, then she heard something she thought she'd never hear: The Two Tails screaming in fright.

_**'T-that's not possible...he can't be one of THEM! They're not supposed to be real! They're just a story!'**_

Yugito was starting to panic a little now. If something could scare a Tailed Beast like this then it was way out of their league.

_'Matatabi what is it? What's wrong!?'_

_**'Get out of there now Yugito! You and your team need to run now or you're all going to die!'**_

_'I don't understand, he's just one man. We can-'_

_**'That thing is not a man! It isn't even remotely human!'**_

"Well then what am I Matatabi!" yelled Hunter.

Yugito was shocked _'How does he know your name?'_

_**'He..he can hear us! Kami, the stories are true.'**_

"What stories!" Hunter was genuinely getting angry now. "What do you know about me!? Tell me. Tell me NOW!"

While Hunter and the Kumo nin were distracted the Iwa squad leader had silently signalled to his team mates to prepare to attack. Two of them charged in ahead of the main group, planning to draw Hunter's attention so he'd be open to attacks from their comrades. They got within a few centimetres of him he spun on the spot, grabbing one ninjas head and slamming him into the dirt and batting the other away with his tail that had suddenly grown out of his lower back.

More changes followed. Hunter's mouth morphed into a jagged black line, his right arm became jet black and dark purple and his hand morphed into a claw.

'It's like a jinchuriki transformation' thought Yugito. "Pull back, we're leaving. Now!"

The Kumo ninja squad turned and ran, but Hunter wasn't willing to let them go that easily.

"GET BACK HERE COWARDS!" he quickly gave chase, running on all fours.

One of the Iwa ninjas got in his path and made a few rapid hand signs. "You're not leaving! Earth style, Earth wall Jutsu!" A large section of the ground rose up forming a ten foot high, six foot thick wall. Hunter didn't stop, he smashed right through it like it was paper, knocking aside the Iwa ninja as he continued to chase after Yugito.

"Is he still after us!?" asked one of the Kumo ninjas.

As if to answer his question a dark bolt shot past them, obliterating a tree.

"Yugito! Shouldn't we turn and fight!? We have the sealing team with us, we can-"

"That won't work!" Yugito yelled back at him "I don't know what he is but he's not a jinchuriki!"

The rest of the Kumo squad looked confused, they were all thinking the same thing 'If he's not a jinchuriki then what is he?'

Another dark bolt flew by, blasting a large crater in the ground where it landed.

"He's not giving up!" said one of the Kumo sealing team.

"It looks like what's left of the Iwa squad is still on his tail. With any luck they might slow him down."

No soon than he'd spoken, Hunter spun round mid leap and yelled out "DARK AERORA!"

A massive burst of air erupted towards the remaining Iwa ninjas. It wasn't a solid wall like a regular air spell, it was a mass of spinning, slicing air blades that slashed at their limbs, causing serious injuries. The ninjas all fell to the ground too wounded to continue their pursuit. Now it was just the Kumo squad left. And Hunter was getting closer.

"YUGITO! GET BACK HERE!" he roared.

'He's catching up fast!' Yugito realised. 'I may have to-'

"DARK AERORA!"

Hunter launched another surge of air blades that rushed towards the fleeing Kumo ninjas.

"Take cover!" Yugito yelled. The squad obeyed instantly, ducking behind several of the forests massive trees. The wind hit a second later with the force of a concentrated hurricane, snapping branches and slicing chunks out of the wood. That was when Hunter caught up with them. He smashed through the tree that two ninjas were using as cover, grabbing hold of them and smashing them both into the ground.

Yugito jumped down from the trees and landed a short way from Hunter, who turned to face her. She could still sense her comrades chakra so they were just unconscious, not dead. Hunter seemed to lose interest in them and took a few steps towards her. While his attention was elsewhere two other Kumo ninjas swooped in and pulled out their friends.

Yugito looked over at her squad. They couldn't run anymore, not while carrying two unconscious bodies. That left her with just one option. _'Looks like we'll have to fight him after all. Are you with me Matatabi?' _

_**'I'm ready Kitten.' **_said the Two Tails. She sounded a lot more confidant now having overcome the shock of encountering something she'd never thought was real. _**'I'll give you free access to my chakra so you can go straight into version two.'**_

Yugito could already feel the demonic chakra surging through her. She'd only gone into this state a handful of times and she still wasn't used to the feeling. Dark red, almost black chakra began to form around her, obscuring her features completely and turning her into a miniature version of her tailed best, complete with two large chakra tails that rose up behind her. The sheer weight of all this solid energy caused the ground beneath her to break.

_'We take him down hard and fast, before he has time to fight back. GO!'_

Yugito shot forwards at blinding speed, punching Hunter right in the gut. He was lifted off his feet and would have been sent flying away through the forest if Yugito hadn't wrapped one of her tails around his leg and used it to smash him into the ground. She followed this up by punching Hunter repeatedly as hard as she could, creating a large crater in the earth as she did so. She was on about the fifth punch when Hunter flung out his claw arm and dug into her right shoulder, passing right through her chakra cloak and into her flesh.

Yugito let out a cry of pain and surprise. _'Arrrghh! H-he went right through the cloak, like it wasn't even there!'_

_**'I can't heal you while his claws still there. You need to get him off you!'**_

_'Tell me something I don't know!'_ Yugito grabbed hold of Hunter's arm and, with enormous effort, managed to pull his claw out of her shoulder. Her wound healed instantly. Yugito delivered several punches to Hunter's head, then she brought both her fist slamming down onto his chest. The crater they were in got even deeper, and the shockwave from the impact was so strong it nearly blew over the other Kumo ninjas, who were still taking cover up in the trees.

Yugito jumped out of the crater and landed between it and her team. As the dust settled Hunter became visible, he was standing in the centre of the crater and despite everything he'd been hit with he didn't look damaged or dazed in the slightest.

"Alright, time to finish this!" declared Yugito. She got down on all fours and brought her tails round above her so the tips were just above her mouth. Once she was in position the Two Tails began channelling a monstrous amount of chakra, creating a solid black ball right in front of Yugito's face.

"What is that?" asked one of the Kumo ninjas.

"It's a called a Tailed Beast ball." replied another.

Yugito opened her mouth wide and swallowed the ball whole. The weight of that extra compressed chakra caused the ground to brake and crack beneath her.

"That's...incredible!" declared a Kumo ninja.

"How it she going to move with all that chakra weighing her down?"

"She's not. Cover your ears and brace yourselves!"

_**'It's ready Kitten. Let him have it!"**_

_'Right! We'll blast this freak back to hell!'_

Yugito opened her mouth and fired off a massive blast of energy that decimated everything in front of her. When it was over a large chunk of forest had been obliterated.

"Looks like she got him!" yelled a Kumo ninja, triumphantly.

_'It's over. The Rikage will be disappointed that we couldn't retrieve a body but I think he'll be happy that...wait...'_

Through the smoke and dust she could see something. Hunter was still standing, still staring right at her with those unblinking yellow eyes. There were cracks visible all over his body and a black and purple substance that was somewhere between smoke and oil was leaking out. A black aura started burning around his body, steadily growing in size and becoming more violent.

_'He...he survived!?'_

Suddenly Hunter dropped down on all fours so his body was close to the ground. His left arm changed to become the same black and dark purple claw that the other had, then he began arching his back. Slowly three dark purple fleshy spines began to rise up out of his spine. The middle one was the largest, about as long as an arm and twice as thick, the other two were only slightly smaller.

**"Kill...you...DESTROYYYYYYYYYYRAWWWWWWGHHH!"**

Hunter darted forwards and before Yugito had a chance to defend herself he slammed into her, punching her in the gut. Hunter didn't stop he kept running forwards, dragging Yugito with him smashing her through a number of large trees before he final came to a halt and slammed her into the ground. Hunter slashed at her with his claws, each sweep went right through the chakra cloak and hit Yugito. The Two Tails healed her wounds as quickly as she could but between the failed tailed beast ball, sustaining version two and healing Yugito she was running out of chakra fast.

Hunter sank his claws into Yugito's shoulders, holding her down. Matatabi got a horrible feeling that Hunter was looking right past her host and directly at her.

**"I see You."**he growled.

He pulled back his left arm and opened his claw, then he drove it right into Yugito's chest. Instantly she felt a cold sensation, time seemed to slow down and the colour began to drain out of the world. Hunter's claws wrapped around the glowing light he could see inside her. He felt sooooo hungry. Hungry for the dark inside. It looked just so delicious. He began to pull his arm back.

Matatabi was panicking. She could sense her host fading away, everything around her was growing dark. She'd never been more afraid.

Hunter continued pulling. Almost there. His mind was a jumble, only the most basic instincts could make themselves heard.

**'Kill her. Feed. Destroy her. Eat the light. Kill her kill her kill her killherkillherkillherkillkillkillkill**...Wait...why...am...I...'

Hunter shook his head. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten here. First he was chasing that blond woman then...

Hunter suddenly saw what he was doing. All at once the memories came rushing back. Instantly he let go of her Heart. Yugito was unconscious and her tailed beast hadn't fully healed all her wounds yet but she was alive.

Three members of the Kumo team arrived a second later. They found their jinchuriki lying out cold and injured and Hunter slowly reverting back to normal. Seizing the opportunity they darted forwards, grabbing Yugito and jumping back to a safe distance. One of them tended to her while the other two kept their attention focused on Hunter.

"Is she ok?" asked one.

"I think so. But she's in no shape to fight."

"Good" said Hunter "cause I'm in no mood to." He got up and took a few steps towards the Kumo ninjas, who readied their weapons. "Don't come after me again. I might _really_ lose control next time."

"Not gunna happen!" declared the ninja to Hunter's left. "Hunter, I don't know what you are and I don't care. But know that you have made an enemy of the Hidden Cloud Village. The next team we send." he paused for dramatic effect "Is coming for your head."

That gave Hunter a wicked idea. He thought it over for a second and couldn't come up with a reason why it wouldn't work.

He gave the Kumo ninjas his best evil grin, then he placed his hands on either side of his head and lifted. The ninjas watched in horror as Hunter's head detached from his body. The one on the right thought he was under some kind of genjutsu and tried to dispel it, only to realise that what he was seeing was real.

That was when Yugito woke up. The first thing she saw was Hunter's body, her eyes were drawn to where his head used to be. At first she thought that one of her squad had decapitated him, then she heard "Watch it sailor, my eyes are up here!" she looked up at his head, which he was still holding in his hands. The look on her face was one of utter shock mixed with disgust and fear.

"Well, this had been a learning experience for us all." remarked Hunter. "And I've gotten one step closer to my new dream. Buying a house in Sleepy Hollow and taking up horse riding." With that he started walking away, reattaching his head by screwing it back on as he went.

Hunter had to admit he was very pleased with himself. Technically he'd never been separate from his head, he'd just used his shape shifting to merge it with his hands while separating it from his neck, then reversing the process when he was done. It was a trick, but it was effective.

'Now, what was I doing before they showed up...Oh, that's right. Itchy and the Man-fish. I am back on your trail.'

* * *

And so ends another chapter. Hope you all liked it. Next entry will be the Christmas Special that I will hopefully release on December 24th. Chapter eleven will be out in the new year and it will include a fight between Kisame and Itachi, the arrival of a familiar enemy and Hunters most ridiculous attack yet.

On a side note here, I'm wondering if I should have kept Danzo alive and used him to add some more political intrigue, you know, him wanting to capture Hunter for his ROOT division. If anyone thinks that's a good idea then please let me know.

_That's all folks!_


	11. Christmas 2014 Special

Here we are with the Christmas Special.

I'd like to thank everyone for all the positive feedback. Personal I'm very proud of this story and I hope to keep it going for a good while yet.

And in response to _Cipher:Can the 4th charm be Bahamut?_ Think bigger. Muuuch bigger.

Just a few thing to be aware of before reading, this chapter is a said story so it's not really connected to the main story line and anything that happens won't tie ion to future chapters. So basically it's a stand alone.

Also Tsunade is Hokage now.

Enjoy

* * *

Christmas Special.

No matter where you go in the worlds some things remain constant. Elves are royal jerks, someone is planning world domination, brussels sprouts are disgusting, and December 24th is always Christmas Eve.

On a world called the Elemental Nations, in a ninja village called the Hidden Leaf it was snowing gently as night set in. The snowfall hadn't been originally forecast but _someone_ had fired off a few blizzard spells into the clouds four days ago it hadn't stopped since. Not that anyone was complaining, who doesn't love snow at Christmas? As the last of the remaining shops started to close for the night the village began to settle down for a nice, quiet

"GET HIM!"

So much for that.

The peace was shattered by a cry from Anko, who along with Kakashi, Guy and Kurenai were leaping from rooftop to rooftop chasing after the greatest annoyance to ever curse their village.

"Keep up slow pokes! I'm not even breaking a sweat here!" yelled Hunter as he continued running away. He was holding a large cardboard box in front of him that was filled to the brim with decorations that he was putting out all over the village while avoiding his pursuers.

"_Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Falalalala, lalalala_!" he sang as he jumped down to street level and began rapidly nailing holly reefs to people's doors.

"You've sung that song EIGHT times now!" yelled Kurenai.

"_'Tis the season to be jolly! Falalalala, lalalala_!" now he was running along the side of buildings putting up long lines of lights and fir garlands.

Kakashi noticed the direction they were going in. "He's heading for the Hokages Tower!"

Hunter rounded a corner and sure enough the Hokage Tower was just down the next street. The only thing between him and it was a few yards and a small armies worth of shinobi who'd gathered outside for the express purpose of stopping him. Now, at this point anyone sane would have turned and ran the other way.

Hunter is many things, sane however is not on the list.

He didn't even slow down, if anything he ran even faster. The ninjas readied their weapons or started making hand signs for their jutsu but just before Hunter reached them he opened a black portal right in front of him and ran into it.

The exit portal appeared in the Hokages office. Tsunade and her assistant Shizune had been working through the seemingly never ending pile of paperwork for the past four hours, they were almost glade for the interruption. Before either of them could speak Hunter used a stop spell. When time resumed for them the office had been fully Christmas-fyed, with lights and wreaths hung up on the walls, two stockings hanging above the window, a small fully decorated Christmas tree in the corner, he'd even put Santa hats on the both of them. Hunter was now standing just in front of Shizune, holding a small branch of mistletoe between them.

"I don't suppose there's any chance of-" He was abruptly cut off when Shizune brought out a kunai and took a slash at his neck, forcing Hunter to move out o her reach.

"Well, can't blame a bloke for trying." he said disappointedly as the teleported away.

_Several miles away on a hill overlooking the village._

"Fools." muttered Thorn as he looked out over the snow covered village. "Still. I can take advantage of this. Now is the time to..." he turned to face the small army of Nobodies that had assembled behind him, only to find that they were now throwing snowballs at each other or ice skating on a large frozen pond that was close by.

"Stop!" he ordered. The other Nobodies all froze mid action and turned their heads to face him.

"Now is hardly the time for-Humph!" once again Thorn was silenced, this time by a snowball that struck him in the face. He raised his hand and slowly wiped the remaining snow away.

"Alright. Which one of you-" He was pelted by several more snow balls.

Once he'd quickly dusted all the snow off he noticed that the other Nobodies had gone right back to their snowball fight. "Well. If you can't beat them." Thorn scooped up enough snow to make a snowball the size of a very small car and through it at a nearby Berserker.

_Back in the Leaf village_

"He's coming this way Boss!" said Konohamaru.

"Excellent. Hehehe, this is gunna be perfect!" giggled Naruto. He and the rest of his team were hiding in a narrow side street just off from a main street that Hunter should be coming down any second. With them was Team Eight, Udon, Moegi and now Konohamaru and in another alley almost dead opposite was Team Ten and Team Guy.

Apart from Naruto and the three academy students no one was too happy with this 'plan' of his as it basically amounted to waiting for Hunter to pass then all jumping out at once, but seeing as no one had thought of a better plan _yet_ they'd decided to go along with it. The promise of revenge had been a massive deciding factor as well. Since Hunter had first appeared they'd all been subjected to his 'humour' and at this point they'd all take just about any chance to get their own back. Apart from Sasuke who just wanted to steal some of Hunter's Darkness power before the jōnin got hold of him.

"Alright, here he comes!" said Naruto.

Everyone tensed up and readied themselves.

"NOW!" they all surged forwards just as Hunter came to an abrupt stop. Instead of catching their target the entire group ended up crashing into each other and landing in an heap on the floor.

Naruto was (unsurprisingly) on the bottom of the pile. He gave a groan of pain then looked up only to find Hunter looking down at him, eyes closed and smiling broadly.

"Nice try fellas. But as the Roadrunner said to the Cyote. 'Meep Meep'!"

Now this would have been the part where Hunter took off into the night, if it hadn't been for...

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Hunter turned round just in time to see Might Guys foot before it smashed into his face. He flew backwards over the genin, crashed into the ground and skidded back a further ten feet through the snow.

"HA! I finally got him. The fires of youth still burn strongly within me!" Guy proclaimed. The rest of the Jōnin showed up at that moment. "Hey Kakashi. I got him before you did. That's one point to me!"

Kakashi let out a tired groan 'There's going to be no living with him now.' he thought.

Hunter hadn't gotten up yet, he was too busy making a snow angel where he'd fallen. Once he was done he stood and turned to admire his handiwork.

"A perfe-what the blue blazes!?"

Everyone else cautiously moved in behind Hunter to see what had him so confused. What they saw dumbfounded every last one of them. Hunter had done all the actions necessary to make a snow angel yetsomehow he'd left in the snow an imprint of a man with horns holding a pitchfork.

"Looks like the Laws of Physics are on holiday today to." everyone turned their gaze back on Hunter, who suddenly realised that just about all the people in this village who wanted to kill him were literally right behind him.

"Oh snap."

Before anyone had a chance to grab him Hunter dashed forwards, ran up the side of a building and perched up on the roof. "Now where was I,..._Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala, lalalala_!"

"Oh, not again!" groaned Anko.

"_Don we now our gay apparel_!"

Naruto and Konohamaru made a few childish giggles that were instantly silenced when Hunter nailed them both in the face with two thrown holly wreaths.

"_For the ancient yewl tide carol. Falalalala, Lalalala_!" Hunter stopped carolling and took a moment to survey his work. Satisfied, he looked back down at the ninjas who were still on ground level, staring angrily up at him. "This has been fun and all but I'm afraid I must take my leave. I've still got some last minute Christmas shopping to do." everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "But don't worry. I'll be back before the night is out." then he disappeared into a black portal.

"Well, that was fun." said Anko, the tone of her voice suggesting it had been anything but.

"I say we go back to enjoying Christmas eve while he's gone." suggested Ino. In a flash she was next to Sasuke asking "So, erm, Sasuke. There's a party on tonight and I was wondering if-"

"Dream on Ino." Sakura interrupted her "If Sasuke's going with anyone it's gunna be ME!"

"Oh, like he'd go anywhere with you, bill-board brow!"

"Ino-pig!"

Sasuke was already walking away having resolved to spend a nice, quiet evening alone.

Slowly everyone else dispersed until only Naruto was left behind. He gave a tired sigh as he watched his friends go, then started walking back to his apartment. Christmas had never been a happy time of year for Naruto. Despite it being the season of good will everyone in the village had always ignored him the same as they did every other day of the year. The worst part of it though had to be watching all the other kids with their families, shopping, playing just generally having fun. Every time he saw that it just made him think about how he had no parents or real family of his own. Sure, he'd had Iruka and Ji-ji in the past and his friends now, but they were still no substitute for the real thing.

"Feeling down, huh?"

Naruto was so surprised he actually fell over. Looking up he saw Hunter, who'd apparently been standing right next to him.

"What the...but you were...you left!?" Naruto sputtered.

"Not exactly." Hunter admitted "I still have some...shopping, left to do here. So I just warped to behind the building and turned into dog."

Naruto gave him a questioning look "You turned into a _dog_?"

Hunter gave Naruto a condescending look "All the things you've seen me do and you find _that_ hard to believe."

"Ok, so why are you following me? Again?"

Hunter took a deep breath and put on his 'serious' face. "Look, Naruto. Even without my whole 'seeing' people thing I can tell you're feeling down in the dumps."

Naruto wasn't in the mood to be comforted so he made a face and started walking again.

"I know it's hard to see everyone else with their family, especially at this time of year. But, it's Christmas Naruto, you shouldn't be focusing on what you don't have you should be thankful for what you do have."

Naruto spun round and angrily yelled "Thankful!? For what, the Demon Fox I've got sealed inside me or the group of S-rank ninjas hunting me!? Why couldn't I just have a normal life? Why did all this have to happen to ME!?"

Hunter wasn't sure how to respond, that's when Naruto blurted out "You know what? I wish I'd never been born!"

"You don't mean that."

"Oh, really? I wish I'd never been born!" Naruto repeated.

"Naruto, you really shouldn't-"

"Hey, Hunter. Come here, I want to tell you something." Hunter leaned in closer to Naruto. "I WISH I'D NEVER BEEN BORN!"

Hunter jumped back, clutching his ear. "OWW! Bloomin' 'eck."

Naruto was already walking away, still in a foul mood. Hunter was about to go after him, but that factory in his head that churns out insane ideas started working. Hunter started smiling as a plan slowly came together in his mind. All he needed to do now was convince Naminé and Riku to help.

_Twilight Town. The Old Mansion_

"Riku, are you sure you don't need my help?" asked Naminé. She and Riku were both in the Old Mansion's foyer, with the latter up a ladder trying to put up some tinsel.

"Naminé, after everything I've faced I'm pretty sure I can handle a-"

That was when a dark portal suddenly opened in the middle of the room and Hunter burst out yelling "HI GUYS!"

Riku lost his balance, fell off the ladder, and crashed in a heap on the ground. Once he got back up he shot Hunter an annoyed look.

All the Heartless could manage was an embarrassed "Oops."

"Hunter, you're back!" declared Naminé. "Did something happen in the Elemental Nations? Are you here to report to DiZ?"

"Yes and no. Speak of the devil, where is DiZ anyway."

Riku pointed to a carved wooden door off to his right. "In his study. He said not to disturb him. That was four hours ago now."

Hunter shrugged "Maybe he'll get visited by three ghosts in the night and change for the better." they all laughed at that. "I didn't come back here for work stuff anyway. I actually need your help."

Hunter quickly explained the situation to Riku and Naminé, then he told them his plan.

"That...could work." said Riku even though he didn't sound convinced.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just talk to Naruto?" asked Naminé.

"No. He won't listen. I need to show him he's wrong. So are you guys in?"

Riku and Naminé looked at each other, then they both nodded.

"Great! Riku, I need you to get the lab ready. Naminé, I need you to come with me and help get Naruto here."

"But I'm not supposed to leave the Mansion." said Naminé with a nervous look towards DiZ's study.

"Ah, what Scrooge won't know won't hurt him."

_A few minutes later._

Hunter and Naminé both appeared out of a black portal in Naurto's bedroom. Naruto himself was asleep, hugging his pillow and snoring just loudly enough to be annoying.

"Oh, Naruto." said Hunter in an attempt to wake the blond up.

Nothing happened.

"Naruto!" he tried again a little louder with the same result.

Naminé poked his head a few times but Naruto just mutters something like "I'll save you Sakura." dreamily.

Hunter rolled his eyes and walked out of the door into Naruto's kitchen. He returned a second later holding a frying pan and said in a calm voice. "Oh no, Ichiraku's Ramen is on fire."

Naruto instantly bolted upright "Huh! Fire!? I-" *clang*. Then Hunter whacked him over the head with the frying pan, causing a now unconscious Naruto to fall out of his bed and onto the floor.

"Um, was that necessary?" asked Naminé

"It was for me." answered Hunter.

"Owww." Naruto groaned as he started to get back up. Hunter whacked him over the head again, knocking him out once more.

"Right, now all we have to do is drag him back to the mansion."

_Back at the Mansion. One hour later._

"Is it ready yet?" asked Hunter for the twentieth time as he paced about the room.

"Hunter, when I'm done making a virtual copy of an entire world, you'll be the first to know." said Riku

All three of them, including the still unconscious Naruto were in the Mansion's lab that was hidden beneath the main library. Riku was sitting at the multi screened computer, typing away while Naminé and Hunter stood behind him waiting. Naruto was slumped in a small cylindrical alcove on the left wall.

"OK." announced Riku. "The simulated Leaf Village is all ready."

"And the changes? This won't work without those." said Hunter.

Riku rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I had the computer run a simulation and it's changed everything accordingly. We're ready to begin whenever you are."

"Alright. Fire it up."

A cone shaped beam of light appeared above Naruto, the a narrow beam shot down from the tip and made contact with the sleeping ninjas head. Naruto began to come apart in digital blocks that floated up and disappeared into the cone of light. In a matter of seconds he'd disappeared completely.

Riuk looked up at one of the computer monitors. "He's back in his room. Well, not _his_ room but, you get the point."

Hunter nodded in understanding, then he stepped into the alcove where Naruto had just been. "Hit it Riku."

Riku tapped a key and the alcove activated once more. Hunter had just enough time to say "Beam me up Scotty!" before he was digitised.

_Later. In Naruto's room_

"Owww" Naruto groaned as he got up, clutching at his aching head. "What...oww..."

"'Bout time." at the sound of Hunter's voice Naruto jumped out of his...wait, where was his bead. In fact where was all his stuff. Looking around Naruto found that his room had been completely emptied, there wasn't so much as an end table left. Apart from himself the only other person there was Hunter, who was standing in the middle of the room looking smug.

"I suppose this is your idea of a joke right? What did you do with all my stuff!? If you sold it to a charity shop or something I swear I'll-"

"Naruto, you don't have any stuff. This isn't your room, or your apartment for that matter." said Hunter.

Still angry and now confused to Naruto asked "What do you mean? Of course it's my room I should know, I've lived in it my whole life"

"Remember what you said a while ago. What you wished for. Well, you were so insistent I decided to grant you wish." Hunter spread his arms wide and proclaimed "Welcome to the world where you were never born!"

"Uh huh." Naruto was unconvinced to say the least. "Seriously now, what did you do with my stuff."

Hunter face palmed and let out a heavy sigh "Don't believe me? Fine, come on, this way."

Still sceptical Naruto followed Hunter out of his empty apartment and up onto the roof of the building. It was night time now and Naruto was still in his pyjamas so he had to cross his arms over his chest to keep some warmth.

"Ok, what are...we...WHAT!"

Naruto had looked out over the Hidden Leaf village many times before. He knew it like the back of his hand (almost). This was not the village he knew. Parts of it were similar but there were buildings here he'd never seen before, and places he knew that were missing altogether. A big part of the leaf seemed somehow...lower that the rest, like it was sitting in a dip.

"What...why...how?"

"Shocking I know." said Hunter. "See, Naruto without you the Fourth Hokage had no one to seal the Nine Tailed Fox into. His sacrifice still weakened it but it took a lot of effort, and the lives of more good people to finally destroy it. It's last attack blew up a good chunk of the village too. Most of it had to be rebuilt. That little dip you can see. It's a blast crater."

"Destroy it?" Naruto repeated questioningly. Even the real Fox inside him was paying attention now.

"Well, not 'destroy' destroy. The Fox is gone but it will come back someday. A lot of people down there are afraid of that."

"This is...No. I still don't believe it you're up to something..or..." Hunter grabbed hold of Naruto's head and angled it so he was now looking at the Hokage Mountain. Naruto's eyes widened. Next to the fourth Hokage's face was another giant bust of a man whose face was mostly covered in stone carved bandages.

"Who is that!?" Naruto demanded.

"Danzo Shimura. The Fifth Hokage."

Naruto rounded on Hunter "No he's not! Tsunade is the Fifth Hokage!"

"No she's not. You were never born here. You never brought her back to the Leaf. When Sarutobi died Danzo became the new Hokage. He's a lot less...tolerant than his predecessor, but he's kept the Leaf going strong. Not a task for the faint of heart." Hunter let his words sink in for a moment. "Now, let's see if we can find your friends." without warning he picked Naruto up and jumped off the roof. He landed with a slight puffing noise as they hit a snow bank.

"Are you nuts!?" demanded Naruto as he dusted snow off himself.

"Of course I am. I thought everyone knew by now."

Naruto looked around. From ground level the village looked the same as ever, people he vaguely recognised were walking about shopping, talking, cleaning, fixing. As usually they were ignoring him.

"They can't see or hear us right?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not the Ghost of Christmas Past. They can see and hear us just fine." To illustrate the point Hunter wished a passing woman a 'Merry Christmas' and she smiled and said the same thing back.

"Ah, there's someone you know well." Hunter pointed to something behind Naruto. The boy turned round, and his head very near exploded.

Standing in a group a few feet away was Tenten, Lee, Guy and Gaara. It wasn't the same Gaara he knew however, he was still dressed the same but he didn't have those black rings round his eyes, or that red symbol on his forehead. He was also...laughing. Gaara was laughing and not in his usual 'I'm gunna kill you and love it' way, just normal, fun laughter. It was weird.

"That's...Gaara" Naruto finally managed to say.

"Yeah. See, the whole reason, well, the main reason that Gaara got stuck with the Shikaku was because the Sand Village wanted a counter measure."

"For what?"

"For you."

Naruto looked like he'd been slapped.

"The Kaszekage was afraid that the Leaf would turn you into a weapon, so he thought he needed a weapon of his own .Just in case. But Because there is no Nine Tails here, Gaara never got the Shikaku. He grew up a normal teenager."

That was when someone else Naruto knew showed up. Sakura walked up to the group and went to stand next to Gaara, who put his arm around her shoulder.

"Huh?" Naruto looked confused. The last time he'd tried that with Sakura she'd punched him almost through a wall.

"Oh, right. Those two are dating." said Hunter casually.

"Dating!" yelled Naruto in absolute disbelief. When that subsided he was left feeling sad "So his life is actually better without me."

"Not exactly. After the whole Sand-Sound invasion Danzo covertly annexed the Sand village. Gaara's a political prisoner of sorts. His sister Temari is the new Kazekage and if she goes against what Danzo says then..." Hunter drew a line across his neck with his finger. "He's free to walk about the village, but he can't leave. Life in a gilded cage."

Naruto looked back at Gaara and the others. The group had started walking away now.

Suddenly Naruto realised something "Wait. Why is Sakura with Gaara? She's had a crush on Sasuke for ages?"

Hunter didn't look at Naruto, he just said. "This way." and started walking.

Naruto followed him all the while trying to ask about Sasuke. After a while Naruto accidently bumped into someone, knocking over them and what they'd been carrying.

"Sorry! said Naruto as he helped pick up the various groceries that had fallen to the floor. He was about to hand them over to the person he'd bumped into, the he froze.

"H-hinata?" the girl in front on him looked like Hinata but instead of her usual outfit she was dressed more plainly in grey winter cloths. She was also wearing a black piece of cloth tied round her head.

"T-thank you sir." she stammered quietly as she took the groceries from him, all the while never meeting his gaze. Then she hurried away.

"Hinata, wait!" Naruto called after her but she was already gone.

"Now there is a sad story." said Hunter.

Naruto looked up at him. "What happened to Hinata? She's ever shyer than I remember a-and where was her forehead protector?"

"She doesn't have one."

"What?! She does! She's a ninja of the Hidden Leaf!" said Naruto, angrily

"No she's not. Do you remember when you first met her?"

Naruto nodded. It was years ago now. Hinata had become separated from her chaperone and some local bullies had decided to make her the target of their fun. Naruto had tried to stop them but this was all before his ninja training and they wiped the floor with him. Still, at least he'd kept them from going after Hinata.

"She never told you but that was what inspired her to be a ninja." Hunter continued "But you were never born here. That never happened. She never lived up to her father's standards and eventual she was thrown out of the Hyūga clan. That bandana on her head. It's to cover up her Caged Bird Seal."

Naruto was horrified. He knew what that seal did to people and the idea that Hinata now had it was almost more than he could stand.

"It's...not all bad. She's living with Kurenai now as her adoptive daughter. Things aren't great but..." Hunter trailed off, unsure of what to say. "Come on, we still have to find Sasuke."

They carried on walking until Naruto saw Ino, Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru sitting together in a restaurant. Kiba was staring at his food while the others looked as though they were trying to talk to him.

"Kiba lost Akamaru in the invasion." said Hunter, pre-empting Naruto's question. "He hasn't been the same since. Everyone's worried about him but they're not sure what to do."

As they carried on walking Naruto saw something else that shouldn't be. Ichiraku's Ramen with a sign up saying 'Out of business'.

"What!? I-Ichraku's Ramen is gone to?"

"Ayme was another casualty of the invasion." said Hunter.

That hit Naruto hard. Ayme had always been nice to him and when he was a lot younger he had a childish crush on her for a while to.

"Teuchi couldn't go back to work after that so he sold his business and left the Leaf."

Hunter urged Naruto to keep going, even thought the young ninja kept insisting he'd seen enough. The two took a short cut through a side street, but when they got back on to the main road they were nearly run over by an expensive looking carriage that was passing by.

"Get out of the way you scum!" yelled one of the carriages guards. "Commoners are not permitted to go near the Water Daimyō! Get lost!"

The carriage carried on by and Naruto got a good look at the man inside. there was no mistaking that face.

"Gatō!?" Naruto yelled in alarm. "B-but he died in the Land of Waves. I was there!?"

"No you weren't. That mission never happened. Tazuna's bridge never got built, Gatō didn't die. Heck, the greedy pig's thriving. He took over the Wave, then he expanded his enterprises further. After paying off the right people and making all the right deals he became the new Water Daimyō after the old one's tragic 'accident'."

Naruto watched the carried containing Gatō roll away into the night. Then he felt Hunter's hand on his shoulder.

"One last stop kid."

Hunter lead Naruto away from the village towards a place that Naruto had only ever visited once in his life. The Memorial stone.

"Why are we here?" asked Naruto.

Hunter said nothing and just kept walking towards the stone.

"Y-you said we were going to see Sasuke. But I don't see him."

More silence.

"Answer me!" Naruto yelled.

Hunter turned and beckoned him over. Slowly, unwillingly Naruto approached the black, kunai shaped stone that was covered in a thin layer of snow. When he was right in front of it Hunter bent down and wiped away a patch of snow revealing a recently added name.

'Sasuke Uchiha'

"S-saskue's...he's..." Naruto couldn't bring himself to say it.

"It was during Orochimaru's invasion. He used took on a whole platoon of sound ninjas by himself, but he couldn't do it alone. He used his Curse Mark. The one the snake man gave him, but he overdid it. It killed him.

Naruto had tears in his eyes now. It looked like he was about to break down at any moment.

"He's not the only one who died."

Hunter wiped away more snow revealing more names.

'Neji Hyūga'

'Yūgao Uzuki'

'Mizuki'

'Shino Aburame'

'Konohamaru Sarutobi'

"No. No no no no no NO!" Naruto screamed. "This is all WRONG! It shouldn't be like this! The world shouldn't be like_ this_!"

"This is what you wished for Naruto."

"I DIDN'T WISH FOR THIS!" Naruto roared.

"Yes you did. What, did you think the world without you would be the same, just no you in it? You've touched a lot of people's lives Naruto, made them better. And now that's all been undone."

Naruto looked around franticly "Then I take it back. You hear me, I take it all back!" Naruto ran forwards and grabbed hold of Hunter's shirt "Whatever you did just undo it! Put everything back the way it was!"

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"YES! yes I'm sure! I was wrong, alright! I-I have a good life after all a-and I was wrong to wish it away. Now please, please just fix it!"

"Ok." Hunter smiled and produced a frying pan from somewhere.

"What's that for?" asked Naruto.

There was a slight clang as Hunter hit him over the head, knocking him out.

"Ok Riku, lesson over. Let's get Naruto home." said Hunter. There was a slight pause, then both he and Naruto vanished from the replica Leaf Village in a beam of light and data.

_The Hidden Leaf. Christmas morning_

Naruto bolted upright yelling "I take it back!" then as he fully woke up he took stock of his surroundings. He was back in his room. And it was his room. All his stuff, his bead, his chairs, his pictures. Everything was back to normal. Naruto bolted out of bed, out of his apartment and up onto the roof. The Hokage monument still only had four faces and the village looked as it always had.

"I-it's all back. Everything is back! Hahaha! BELIEVE IT!" Naruto yelled joyously.

Without even bothering to get dressed he ran down several flights of stairs and out into the village. It wasn't long before he found the rest of the Konoha Nine who were exchanging gifts outside the Haruno's flower shop.

"Guys!" Naruto yelled "Hey! You're here! You're all here Hahaha!"

They all looked at each other, confused and a little worried.

Sasuke spoke first "Naruto. Just what's wrong with-ekk!" he was cut off when Naruto ran forwards and hugged him. Sasuke's face was an absolute picture, Kiba wished he had a camera to capture the moment.

Akamaru gave an amused bark, then Naruto broke the hug, scooped the dog up and started hugging him. "Akamaru! Oh, it's good to see you to!"

"Errm, Naruto? Any chance you could let my dog breath?" said Kiba.

"What's gotten into him?" asked Tenten as Naruto dropped Akamaru and proceeded to grab Shino a bear hug.

"Christmas Spirit?" suggested Lee.

Shino was now using his bugs to try and get Naruto to release him but it wasn't having any effect.

That was when the sand siblings turned up.

"I can't believe you dragged me all the way here for Christmas." said a very annoyed Kankurō.

"Stop whining Kankurō." said Gaara. "Tsunade invited us all here, we should-gahh!"

Naruto had tried to run over and hug Gaara but he'd ran headfirst into the sand shield that kept popping up to 'protect' him.

"Ouch." the blond squeaked as the shield dropped and he feel over.

"Is he ok?" asked Temari.

"We're...not sure." replied Sakura.

Naruto got back up and yelled "Gaara! You're alright!"

Gaara blinked a few times then said "Erm. I'm...fine. Are you?"

"Me? I'm great! I'm fantastic! Believe it!" Naruto cart wheeled off to the left "Everything's great! It's all fine just the way it is!"

There was a loud crash from further away.

"What was that!?" yelled Ino in surprise.

"No idea. Let's go see!" said Naruto, who ran off in the direction of the sound.

Sakura called after him "No, Naruto wait it may be- ah, who am I kidding. Like he'd ever listen."

The rest of the Konoha Nine and the Sand Siblings chased after Naruto. Soon they all came to the source of the commotion. In the middle of the village where four main roads joined was a large, fully decorated Christmas Tree. Most of the village, shinobi and civilian was gathered around taking presents from the huge pile at the trees base.

Naruto looked around and saw Tsunade standing with her arms founded as short distance away. "This wasn't here three seconds ago. How'd it get here?" she wondered aloud.

An ANBU ninja walked up to here and presented her with a piece of fouled paper. "This was found on one of the braches Lady Hokage."

Tsunade unfolded it and read the message. It was just four words.

"Merry Christmas Chesty La Rue"

She scrunched up the note and angrily hissed "Hunter."

"This one has my name on it!" said Lee, who'd apparently got to take a present while on one was looking. He quickly unwrapped his present and found a small set of weights inside. He picked on up, seemingly disappointed, then he noticed a small red button on it. He pushed it and the weight suddenly became incredibly heavy, so much so that it pulled Lee down to the ground.

"Excellent!" Lee declared. "A most youthful gift. I shall train with them until I can lift both with ease!"

Everyone else started to close in on the tree, picking up their own presents. Guy received a set of weights that were much like Lee's, only larger. Gaara got a joke book with a note suggesting he should laugh more. Kankurō got a whole new battle puppet that he loved to bits already. Temari got and ornate and expensive looking doll with a note reading 'for the growing collection'. She blushed and made and attempt to hid the doll from sight.

Konohamaru got a miniature Hokage's hat that he was already wearing. Moegi received a pretty looking hair pin while Udon got a set of handkerchiefs.

Kakashi got..."The latest Icha Icha! It's not even on the shelves yet!" he was holding the book to his chest and crying a river of anime tears.

Jiriya got a book as well along with a note saying' Some new book ideas'. He looked at the title. "Hmm '_Fifty shades of Grey'_?" he thumbed through the first few pages, the his eyes went wide and he put on his trademark pervert grin. "New ideas...Hehe, lots of new ideas."

Tenten got a few exotic looking weapons that she was closely examining. Neji's gift was a cook book. "How did he know I was learning?" he muttered to himself. Anko had gotten a picture that showed Hunter posing over a badly beaten up Orochimaru and Kabuto "Hehe. This is so going on the wall."

Sasuke had gotten an anger management self help book along with a note saying 'If you don't read it I'll give all your fan girls a key to your house'. Sasuke gulped and resolved to read the entire book that day.

Ino had gotten a dress she'd been looking at for weeks but never had the money to buy. Choji had gotten a single apple with an accompanying note saying it was an 'Apple of Arlathan'. He cautiously took a bite, then he seemingly spaced out for a moment. When he came to his senses again he looked down reverently at the piece of fruit and said "Best. Apple. Ever!"

Shikamaru's gift was a chess set, Shino had gotten an encyclopaedia of exotic bugs and where to find them that he was already studying intently. Kiba had received a dog grooming kit, and Akamaru had gotten a nice juice bone.

Asuma and Kurenai had both gotten baby cloths and parenting books. Needles to say the two of them looked a little uncomfortable.

Tsunade had gotten an advanced medical textbook that Hunter had 'borrowed' from another more advance world. Shizune got a large guide book detailing various cultural heritage sites around the world. Even the small pig Tonton got a bag of pig food.

_The Old Mansion_

It was Christmas in Twilight Town to, and in the old Mansion's lab Riku, Naminé and Hunter were all opening their gifts from one another.

Riku had gotten a hand draw picture of himself and Sora on Destiny Islands from Naminé and from Hunter he'd gotten a sword.

Naminé had gotten a pad of paper and colouring pencils from Riku and a history book of art from Hunter.

Hunter himself had gotten a picture from Naminé of the time they both sat on the rooftops of the Leaf and eat ice-cream together and Riku had given him a book on various forms of combat.

"Thanks guys." said Hunter earnestly.

"Do you think DiZ will like our gift?" asked Naminé.

DiZ was still in his study, sitting at his desk, looking at his 'gift'. A book entitled '_A Christmas Carol'_. He picked it up like it was toxic, then he dropped it in a waist paper basket and got back to work.

"He's probably putting it through the shredder as we speak." joked Riku. "I still can't believe you got gifts for _everyone_ in that village."

Hunter shrugged "What can I say. I'm a giver."

"Did you get a serious gift for a single one of them?" asked Naminé.

"Two." Hunter responded slyly.

_Back in the Leaf_

(Authors note: Open a new window, go to YouTube and play something Christmassy. Go on, you know you want to.)

After much searching Naruto had finally found his present. Unwrapping it he was surprised to find another present inside. The label read 'To Hinata from Naruto'. Looking around he saw Hinata and walked over to her. She had apparently received similar gift, only hers was addressed to Naruto.

"Hey Hinata." he said as he approached.

Hinata started and let out a small "Eep." she quickly blurted out a "Hello Naruto." to cover it up.

Naruto looked down at the paper wrapped box in his hands "I erm, think this is for you." he offered the box to Hinata who shyly took it while giving Naruto her own present.

The two opened their respective gifts, then they jumped back in alarm as a ball of light emerged from each box. The two orbs collided with each other in the space above and between them and formed a spectral mistletoe that hovered above them.

"Oh, that's erm..." Naruto shifted uncomfortably. Hinata had turned several shades of red at this point.

"Hinata, we er..don't _have _to."

"No!" Hinata blurted out. "I-I mean, no I w-want to..."

The two of them moved closer together, Naruto leaned in and Kissed Hinata lightly on the lips. For Hinata it was as though the world was standing still. Without thinking she wrapped her arms round Naruto and gave him a passionate kiss. Naruto was stunned at first but he returned Hinata's embrace and started kissing her back.

Most of Naruto's friends had taken notice at this point.

"Those two are..." said Sakura disbelievingly.

Sasuke managed a slight smile "And I thought he'd never notice."

"It's about time." said Kakashi.

Lee and Guy nodded in agreement and said "Most youthful." while both giving a thumbs up.

Tsunade groaned "I'm going to have to give Hunter a pardon for this aren't I."

"Well, it is the season of good will my Lady." said Shizune.

Naruto and Hinata were only now braking their kiss and blushingly looking at each other as the first snow of the day began to fall.

"Merry Christmas Hinata." said Naruto.

Hinata's smile widened "Merry Christmas Naruto."

"Merry Christmas to all of you!"

Everyone looked up and saw Hunter dressed in a Santa suit un on the roof of a nearby building.

"Hope you all enjoyed your gifts. Now, if you'll excuse me. I've got some last minute gifts to deliver!"

Hunter brought his hand up to his mouth and whistled loudly. Nothing happened for a while, then people started to hear something.

"Is that...sleigh bells?" asked Naruto.

He got his answer a second later when a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer appeared and pulled up next to the roof Hunter was on. He jumped into the back of the sleigh, then leaned over to talk to the driver.

"Thanks for letting me do this Santa."

Santa Clause looked over his shoulder at the Human-Heartless "It's the least I can do to thank you. You have no idea how big a debt I owe you for keeping Jack Skellington occupied this year."

"Don't mention it. Now let's get rolling."

With a tug of the reigns the sleigh started to take off. Hunter leaned out over the back and started waving at the people down below.

Having recovered from the weirdness of this event everyone started waving back.

"Do you think he's gone for good?" asked Guy.

"Like we'd ever be that lucky." said Tsunade

Hinata and Naruto just smiled and held each other tighter.

"So many childhood dreams coming true right now." Hunter said to himself as the sleigh climbed skywards.

"Hahaha! _Oh won't you giiiivvvve...your looovvvveee...for Chirstmassssss!"_

* * *

Thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoyed it.

For the next chapter I've decided that I'm going to bring Danzo back. He's just to good an antagonist for me to just kill of so early, so I'll be going back to chapter two to tweak the ending majorly. I'm also going to be revealing Hunter's third summon in a few chapters time. I bet none of you can guess who it is.

See you next time

Merry Christmas


	12. Chapter 11

Ok, chapter eleven is ready to be released into the wild. In today's episode there are boats, ninja Heartless and a familiar face.

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 11

Hunter had been following Itachi and Kisame's trail for about an hour now and was occupying his mind by thinking of all the horrible things he'd do to them when he caught up. Mostly though he was just trying to blot out the memories of turning half Heartless and trying to eat Yugito, but the more he tried not to think about it the more it stuck in his mind. He'd truly wanted to kill her, eat her Heart. The idea that that monster was still inside him somewhere was disturbing to say the least.

After a further half hour of running Hunter arrived at a large town that was similar to the Hidden Leaf only it had no wall surrounding it. The place was absolutely bustling with people, all of them shopping, working, chatting some even performing.

"Fantastic." he mumbled as he walked down the main market street. "How am I supposed to find Captain Personality and Fish Face in all this? Ugh, it's gonna take ages!"

Hunter sat down on a bench and tapped his forehead a few times. Then he bolted upright and turned his head so fast it would have given him whiplash if he'd been human. "Or not. I sense...a great Darkness. That way!" he got up and dashed off in the direction he'd sensed the evil. For a moment he wondered if he was just imagining things, then something up ahead exploded, a large hole had been blown in the upper floor of a building not far away. Most people were just stopping and staring, some were running, one or two were ignoring it and carrying on as normal.

Hunter's Heartless vision let him see what was going on. Not only were Kisame and Itachi up there but so was Naruto, Jiriya and that Sasuke kid. Hunter was about to charge right in, then the thought of a better plan and teleported away. Better in this case meaning more complex than necessary and generally insane.

_Five minutes later_

Naruto had never felt more helpless in his life. Right now he was watching as Itachi beat the crap out of Sasuke and there was nothing he could do to help. Despite all his training, how far he'd come there was nothing he could do.

Sasuke himself wasn't feeling much better. All his training, all his dedication, all the effort he'd poured into his ambition, and when the time came to fulfil his dream he still was strong enough. Itachi currently had him by the throat and was holding him against the wall.

"You still don't have enough hate inside you." he said in that creepy steady voice of his "And you know something" he leaned in closer so he was right by Sasuke's ear "You never will."

Naruto was about to leap into action and do something stupid when they all heard some kind of commotion from outside, then someone yelled "INCOMING!".

Something large smashed into the side of the hotel, the stone walls buckled and a long pillar of wood broke through that would have impaled Itachi, if he hadn't have jumped out of the way. The whatever-it-was was still breaking through. Naruto saw his chance and dashed forwards, grabbing Sasuke and leaving the building through the hole that Sasuke's chidori had made earlier. Jiriya was right behind him, Kisame and Itachi weren't far behind. Now that all combatants were out on the street they could all see what had happened. Although, none of them could believe it.

A huge wooden ship, a man-o-war from the looks of it, had rammed into the side of the hotel. The top deck looked completely deserted and the higher level ninjas present couldn't sense any chakra signatures aboard.

"Ahoy, me hearties!" They all looked further up. There was a solitary figure up in the ships rigging. As they watched he jumped from his perch, grabbed hold of a rope and swung down, letting go at the last moment and landing nimbly on the deck.

"Oh, no" groaned Naruto "Not him again."

As the figure leapt up onto the side rail Naruto's worst fears were confirmed. It was Hunter. And he was wearing the most ridiculous, stereotypical, ostentatious pirate outfit ever. A large golden overcoat clung to his back covering a fine tunic and knee length black leather boots. Several straps crisscrossed his torso that were covered in holsters, which were in turn carrying flintlock pistols. Topping it all off was the massive brimmed hat he was wearing, which had a large red feather sticking up over the top.

"Is that...Hunter!" exclaimed Jiriya as he realised who it was.

"Hunter? Nar ye scurvy dog! I be Long John Hunter. Devil of the seven seas, five oceans and...erm hotels."

Kisame looked over at his partner "Itachi, did you put me in a Tsukuyomi again?"

The Uchiha shook his head. "No, this is very real."

Kisame looked back at Hunter and yelled "Where did you even get that boat from anyway!? We're miles in land!"

Hunter just shrugged and said "A wizard did it." then he turned his attention to Naruto and Jiriya "You know Naruto I'm surprised at you. This is what, the third time I've saved your ass. You think you'd be glad to see me."

"Just what do you want this time!?" demanded Naruto, almost afraid to know the answer.

"Ar! I have come for the beast that took me leg and me ship! The Great White Fishstick!" he proclaimed, pointing at Kisame. He then grabbed a harpoon from somewhere behind him and threw it at the rouge ninja, who easily deflected it with his sword.

"Breach yer last Moby Kisame! Thy hour and thy harpoon are at hand!" moving at super human speeds Hunter began throwing more harpoons at both Kisame and Itachi, forcing the duo to either dodge or block the projectiles. After about a minute Hunter ran out of ammo, much to his annoyance.

"This kid is starting to bug me." said Kisame. "Come down here and fight like a man, you demented brat!"

"Why don't you and your husband come up here and fight like idiots!" Hunter shot back.

Now Kisame was genuinely angry "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!"

"Whoa, calm down, no one here's judging. I swap genders like other people swap shoes. And I know that Naruto swings that way too."

"W-what!" yelled Naruto, who instantly looked mortified "No! No I don't!"

"Then how come your first kiss was with Sasuke?"

It took everything, and I mean everything, Itachi had not to break his 'ice man' exterior and start rolling around laughing.

Naruto mean while turned several shades of red and started looking around franticly "What!? How do you know about that!? I-I mean, no! I...Arghhh! Just WHAT DO YOU WANT!"

"Alright, the real reason I'm here... Is to plunder all yer booty!" large sweat drops appeared behind the heads of all those present "And drink hearty grog." he then produce a bottle of the liquid from somewhere behind him and proceeded to drink it.

"Well, that explains a few things." muttered Jiriya.

Hunter finished the bottle, then he wobbled slightly before yelling at the top of his lungs "I am Captain James T. Kirk, negotiating the federation of GAY planets!" the sweat drops got even bigger "Now open up yer docking bays" Hunter pulled on a set of ropes and every cannon on the ship emerged from its hole "and prepare to be BOARDED!"

He pulled another set of ropes which caused several cannons to fire. Most of the cannon balls missed by very large margins, one was deflected by Kisame's sword, another one went straight for Naruto, who jumped over it at the last moment.

"Are you crazy!" yelled the blond ninja "You almost hit me with that one!"

Hunter ignored him and just set off another set of cannons while yelling "From hell's heart, I strike at thee!"

Itachi, Jiriya and Naruto (who was still carrying the unconscious Sasuke) had all wisely moved out of the cannons very limited firing arc. Kisame however stubbornly remained where he was, using the Shark Skin to whack away incoming cannon balls like they were oversized baseballs.

"I've had it with this kid. Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" A large mass of shark shaped water formed above Kisame and launched itself at Hunter. He jumped out of the way just as it hit the deck, splintering the wood into matchsticks.

Hunter ditched the pirate ensemble mid jump and landed a few feet behind Kisame.

"Time to kick this up a notch." he said as he let a summon charm drop out of his sleeve. "I chose you, PIKACHU!"

There was a brief flash of white light and the small electric mouse appeared sitting on Hunter's head.

"Pika!"

"Ready Pikachu?"

"Pika pi!"

"Then let's go!" Hunter darted off to the left, while Pikachu ran to the right, both of them crackling with electric energy. Pikachu attempted to headbutt Kiasme but the giant stepped backwards out of the way. Which put him squarely in the path of a thunder bolt hurled by Hunter.

"Interesting." muttered Jiriya. He and Naruto had both taken cover at the back of the ship that Hunter had arrived in and were now both peaking out to watch the fight between him and Kisame.

"Hm. What do you mean Pervy Sage?" asked Naruto.

"Naruto, Kisame is a water style specialist. Hunter is using lightning style chakra and a lightning summon to counter him." As they watched Kisame swung his sword a Pikachu, but the tiny Pokémon nimbly jumped over his blade.

"And the two of them a focusing on speed to defend against Kisame's raw strength." Jiriya smiled to himself a little "I suspected that the whole 'psychotic prankster' routine was just an act. There is a canny strategist under all that crazy."

Hunter dodged another blow from Kisame's sword and threw another thunder bolt at him, all the while singing "Thunder cats are on the move. Thunder cats are lose!"

"Pika!"

Hunter jumped away from Kisame and looked over at Pikachu. "Hm. You want to what?"

"Pika, Pika pi Pika Pika, Pikachu!"

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. Let's go!" Hunter shot forwards, charging himself with electricity, a second later Pikachu did the same. The two began to run round Kisame at superhuman speeds, forming a electric ring around the man-fish hybrid.

'Impressive' thought Itachi as he looked on from his perch up on the ship's deck. 'They're moving so fast even my Sharingan can't keep up.'

"What are they up to now!?" Kisame yelled as he tried to spot either of his targets.

After a few more seconds Hunter yelled out "NOW!". In the blink of an eye he was below Kisame, and before the man had time to react Hunter had kicked him into the air. This was followed by Pikachu, who jumped up off the ground and head butted Kisame right in the gut. Both Hunter and the yellow Pokémon then disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared behind and above Kisame.

"Let's finish this!" declared Hunter as he did a overhead spinning kick at the same time Pikachu performed a tail smash. They both hit Kisame in the back at the exact same time, sending him racing towards the ground, but they weren't done yet. The pair began to spark with yet more electricity.

"Pikkkaaaaaa-!"

"Thundaaaa-!"

"-CHHUUUU!"

"-GGAAAAAAA!"

Two massive bolts of lightning struck Kisame, smashing him into the ground with so much force it made a small crater. As the lightning tapered off Hunter and Pikachu landed back on the ground between the ship and where Kisame had fallen.

Hunter surveyed the damage he'd caused and smiled to himself "Who says lightning never strikes twice?"

"Pika." responded the small Pokémon with a nod as it began to glow and change back into a summon charm.

"Wow." breathed Naruto, who was watching Hunter with a mix of awe and nervousness.

"I've never seen a thunder style jutsu like that before" commented Jiriya. "I wonder where he got his ninja training?"

"I didn't. I'm not a ninja!" said Hunter. "Yes, I can hear you over there." he added upon seeing the surprised looks on the two ninjas faces.

"Youuuuu...Brat...argh..." All three of them looked round and saw Kisame slowly getting to his feet. The former Kiri nin's cloak had been burned and torn in many places and there were minor wounds visible on his face and arms.

"You'll...pay for that!" he swore in between pants.

"Alright then. I'm gunna turn you into sushi you great-"

"Amertarasu!"

Before Hunter could finish his right arm suddenly burst into black flames. He started running round while waving his arm about and yelling "OuchOuchOuchOuch!"

Itachi ran past the still screaming Hunter and stopped by Kisame just long enough to say "We're leaving." then he looked back at Hunter, who'd plunged his arm into a pond that was part way through freezing over.

"That's twice you've got me with that black fire now!" said Hunter, angrily. "Itachi, when I get my claws on you you're..." Hunter trailed off and focused on an area of Itachi's head.

The Uchiha's eyes narrowed then his mouth twitched up into a ghost of a smile "Now you have my attention, Hunter." then both he and Kisame turned and ran.

Hunter had pulled his arm out of the ice just stared after the two of them. "God, I would go gay for that voice." he muttered just loud enough for Naruto and Jiriya to hear, who both fell over backwards.

Jiriya was the first one to get back up "I wish you'd stop doing things like that!"

"I like freaking people out. It's funny." said Hunter with an offended, almost childlike innocence.

"You still haven't told me why you're here! Are you following me?" asked Naruto, who was keeping his distance after what happened the last time he and Hunter met.

"No. I was following them" Hunter pointed at where Itachi and Kisame had been. "and they were following you. Now, I don't think they want you for your personality, or you intellect, or dress sense. So...they're after that great orange ball of fuzz."

Jiriya narrowed his eyes. He suspected that Hunter knew about the Nine Tails, but he hadn't known for certain until just now. "So you're after the Nine Tails to."

"No. Well, yes but...erm. Argh! It's more complicated than that, I-...pffft hahahaha." Hunter's sudden outburst of hysterical laughter was not a comforting sight to either Naruto or Jiriya. In fact it was kind of creepy.

"Ohhoho. 'It's more complicated than that'. Yeah, that just about sums up my whole life right about now."

"I think he's completely lost it Pervy Sage." Naruto said quietly to Jiriya.

"Heard that!" Hunter snapped. "I'm not insane. I'm bubbly. And Dashing. And...hang on."

"What?" asked Naruto.

"I sense a great disturbance in the force." Hunter saw the looks on their faces then added "No, really I can sense something-whoa!"

Hunter ducked down just in time to avoid...

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Might Guy shot past where Hunter had just been and landed a flying kick on Jiriya's face. The look on his face when he realised he'd not only missed his target but hit one of the sanin was a mix of embarrassed, nervous and apologetic. A second later a very angry Jiriya was staring at him with a murderous look that was slightly ruined by the piece of tissue paper that had been plugged up the Toad sage's left nostril.

"S-sorry Master Jiriya" Guy stuttered while rubbing the back of his head "I w-wasn't aiming for you."

Jiriya managed and angry "U-huh."

Guy gave another nervous laugh, then he spun round, pointed at Hunter accusingly and said in his most authoritative voice "Hunter! As a jonin of the Hidden Leaf I am placing you under..."

Whatever Guy was about to say died in his throat. Hunter wasn't paying attention to him, in fact the teen was focusing on ignoring Naruto, who was buzzing around him and chattering like a hyper hummingbird.

"So you can just sense everything happening around you? You don't even need to look? That is so cool! Pervy sage says that you have an affinity for thunder style chakra, is that how you can throw all those lightning bolts? And that summon you used, that was the strangest and cutest thing I've ever seen! What summon contract did you sign? Can you summon a whole race of mice that can use different elements? I can summon toads, just like Pervy sage can. I can even summon this really big boss toad call Gama-"

"Woah! Slow down there. So, to answer your questions in reverse order: No. I didn't sign any contract. I can throw lightning bolts because I can. No, I don't need to look and yes I can 'just sense' everything happening around me."

A slight groan from Sasuke drew Naruto's attention back to his injured friend, who was still laying prone on the ground not far away. Guy was already by the young Uchiha's side, checking his injures when Naruto ran over to them.

"Is he okay?" he asked.

"Physically yes." said Jiriya. "Nothing a lot of rest won't heal. I'm more concerned about his mind."

"Yeah. You should be." muttered Hunter.

Everyone looked back at him. His smile had vanished and his eyes were glowing an eerie yellow. He was looking right at Sasuke.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

Hunter said nothing for a moment, then he looked at Naruto and said "Take my advice. Find a new friend."

That made Naruto angry. "What!? No way! I don't ever abandon my friends. Believe it!"

"He can't stand up to his Darkness Naruto. Eventually he'll give in completely and then he won't be your friend anymore. He won't be anyone's friend."

Naruto started clenching his fists. "Don't talk about Sasuke like you know him. You don't! You say he can't stand up to Darkness on his own, then I'll help him fight it. Sasuke is my best friend. And that is never going to change so long as I can help it!"

"Wrong on all counts. I do know Sasuke. Same way I know everyone I look at. You wanna know why my eyes are like this? What my 'kekkei genkai' is?" At this point Jiriya and Guy listening very carefully. "I can see who people are. The good, the bad, the lies, the hate, the greed. The pure unfiltered cold truth. And I can't ever shut it off!" Hunter closed his eyes and took a deep breath as though to calm himself down. When he opened them again his eyes had become normal once more. "I can see into everyone's soul. So believe me when I say that if you keep Sasuke close he will betray you. Each time worse than the last."

'If what he's saying is true' thought Jiriya 'it would explain his erratic personality. All that information going through his head at once. It's a miracle he's even remotely sane at all.'

"No way!" yelled Naruto "I don't care what you say Hunter! I'm never going to abandon my friends. That's my Ninja Way!"

"Arrgh! You are so...ah, fine. Fine. Your funeral." Hunter tuned and started marching off. "When he does finally turn on you I will be there to say 'I told you so'."

"Hold it right there!" yelled Guy. "Hunter, you are still under arrest. The only place you're going is straight back to the Leaf for questioning."

Hunter stared blankly at him for a moment then he gave a simple "No." as a response and carried on walking, leaving Guy looking utterly deflated.

"Good like finding that Tsunade lady!" he added.

Jiriya looked dumbfounded "H-how do you know about that!?"

"I knew it, he's been stalking both of us!" declared Naruto.

"No. I've just been following the things that have been following you!" Hunter retorted.

Now they were really confused.

"Things following me?" Naruto repeated quietly, then he started looking all around like a frightened child convinced that there were monsters out to get him.

Jiriya let out a sign at how easily Naruto believed what he'd been told "Naruto, he's just messing with you. Isn't that right Hun..." When the toad sage turned to face Hunter he was surprised to find that he had vanished. "...ter."

"Huh? Where'd he go?" asked Naruto.

Hunter hadn't gone far, in fact he was still in the village. Well, on the outskirts of it anyway. Close enough to still be in sensing range of Naruto. Having realised that the Nobodies had taken an interest in the blonde Hunter had decided to wait and watch for when the next spy would show up then he'd catch it and hopefully get some answers.

Minutes passed into hours and the sun began to edge closer to the horizon. Hunter had to get up and move a few times to keep in range of Naruto and Jiriya but other than that he hadn't moved much. He was currently leaning up against a tree counting the leaves that fell when he felt something inside, a...pang. At first he dismissed it as just boredom but then he felt it again. When the third one hit he couldn't ignore it any longer. He refocused his senses away from Naruto and out into the wilderness.

He could sense...people...and...Darkness. Powerful Darkness.

Hunter ran as fast as he could, heading in the direction of the darkness. He knew leaving Naruto was a risk but he couldn't ignore someone possibly using Darkness in this world either.

He burst through a dense hedge and came upon the source of the disturbance. There were about eight ninjas in front of him, Stone ninjas from their headbands. They were in a sorry state, five were out cold and lying strewn about the ground the three left standing were grouped together back to back trying to hold off their attackers.

Their opponents were what really drew Hunter's attention. Outwardly they looked like...well, what most people think ninjas should look like, six beings dressed in black carrying blades that were similar to samurai swords. The similarities ended though when you looked at their faces. They were jet black and featureless save for two bright glowing yellow eyes.

Heartless.

The Heartless had surrounded the remaining Stone ninjas and were beginning to close in when they seemed to sense Hunters presence. They forgot their previous quarry and turned to face him.

"Hey! Why'd ya stop!"

The man who'd spoken was..."What the heck!"

Ok, it wasn't a man. Well, not exactly, it was defiantly male but not human. The 'it' in question was a black furred, obese, anthropomorphic cat, or dog, one or the other. It had a large square face with large white eyes that held black oval shaped pupils, a wide mouth that had only four visible rectangular teeth, two small curved ears on the top of its head that were vaguely reminiscent of devil horns. The weirdest part was its outfit. It was wearing a short sleeve red shirt, navy blue and white sneakers and navy blue pants with purple legs, two enormous pouches on either front side and a comically large zipper going down the front and reaching round to the backside of the pants. The pants were seemingly held up by two navy blue suspenders that crossed over its chest and connected to two blue pauldrons on his shoulders. It was also wearing a pair of fingerless gauntlets, the wrists of which were light blue with a pale yellow semicircle on top while the gloves were a light purple with a large bump on each knuckle.

"You nimrods are supposed to be turnin' them into more Heartless! So stop standin' round and get to it!"

Hunter had seen some weird things lately but this took the biscuit. "Hey!" Hunter's yell made the large anthropomorph turned round.

"Huh? Just who are you!?" he demanded.

"You first!" replied Hunter.

Now the man-cat was getting angry, then he saw the symbol on Hunter's shirt. "Hehe. Well would ya look at that. You're a Heartless to."

Hunter shifted uncomfortably. His first thought was 'He knows what I am!?' which was followed by 'This ball of lard just pegged in two seconds what the Leaf ninjas still haven't figured out after a month. He's not as thick as he looks.'

"That means you gotta do whatever I say." he continued. Then he turned back to the ninjas who were still surrounded by the Heartless. "Now, get those-ouch!" he was cut off when something hit him in the head. The cat-man turned angrily and saw his new 'recruit' twirling another stone in his hand.

"What's wrong with you!? I said get them, not me-ow!" Hunter threw the stone and hit his target on the forehead. "Oh you are gunna pay for that. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, messes with the mighty Pete! Heatless squad! Sick 'em!"

Four of the Heartless simply charged straight at him while the other three leapt into the air, soared over their comrades and tried to impale Hunter with their swords. He bashed the first two aside and swatted the last one with his tail. That still left four.

With a cry of "Savage claw mode!" Hunter's arm shifted into its black and purple claw form. In seconds Hunter had sliced through the remaining Heartless who disappeared in bursts of dark smoke.

Pete gave a few angry grunts then he charged at Hunter, pulling back his large fist back to deliver an earth shattering punch...that completely missed its target. Hunter had disappeared leaving a confused Pete looking around asking "Where'd he go?"

Hunter was now standing right behind Pete and after waiting for a moment he gave the overweight idiot a super strength kick to the backside. Pete was launched forwards and crashed face down a few feet from Hunter. He gave a moan of pain as he shifted so he was now on his back facing Hunter, then he made a sly grin as he reached round and produced a small orb from somewhere behind him.

"Here, catch!" he said sinisterly as he threw the orb at Hunter who, like an idiot, caught the dam thing.

"And just what it this suppo-"

BOOM!

Hunter was knocked to the ground by a powerful explosion. He laid where he was long enough for the smoke to clear then he bitterly muttered "Every bloody time." before rising to his feet. The first thing he saw was that Pete was back up as well and he was standing a good deal further away and looking very please with himself.

"Haha! Looks like ol' Pete's just too quick for ya!" Hunter gave him a murderous look but Pete ignored it. "Just you wait kid. I've got a whole Heartless army on the rise and when Maleficent gets back you're in for a world of hurt."

A black portal began to appear around Pete and by the time Hunter got to him he was gone. 'A Heartless army.' thought Hunter 'Oh that's bad. That is very very bad.'

From somewhere behind him he heard someone say "Hunter! By order of the Tsuchikage you aremmmrrpph-"

"Quiet you moron!" said a female voice in a hushed tone.

That was when Hunter remembered the three stone ninjas. He slowly turned towards them, while putting on an evil grin. The three of them were assembled a meter away on the edge of the tree line. The man who'd yelled at him was the one in the middle, and the one who'd shut him up was the woman to his left, who still had her hand over her comrades mouth.

"Hello." Hunter cracked his right knuckles "Misplaced." then the left "Aggression."

The fight, if it could be called that, lasted for about five minutes and was completely one sided. Hunter was now standing over a pile of unconscious Stone ninjas, dusting his hands off when he noticed something poking out of one of their jackets. Pulling it out he found that it was a thick black book with no title or any writing on the cover as far as he could see. His curiosity aroused he opened it to the first page.

"_Users guide: How to use your Bingo Book_. Bingo? why would a ninja have-" he turned the page "Oh, now I get it." the book was a list and information guide of other ninjas, some enemies, rouges, criminals or just those who are wicked powerful.

Hunter flicked through to a random page and found a familiar pair of eyes staring back at him "No surprise Itachi is in this thing. _Uchiha Itachi : S-rank criminal. Former Special Jonin of the Hidden Leaf Village. Widely considered a prodigy, Itachi became and ANBU captain when he was thirteen years old. Like most Leaf ninja he has a fire chakra affinity combined with the Uchiha clans sharingan and its inherent abilities _blahblahblah _years of service_ Blahblah _was declared a Rouge Nin after massacring his entire clan save for his younger brother Sasuke Uchiha. If spotted inform Tsuchikages office immediately. Do not approach. Wanted : Dead._"

Hunter started walking back in the direction of the town, while flicking back to the 'H' section to see if he was in the book. He stopped when he found another familiar entry. "Ah, Fishface. _Hoshigake Kisame. S-rank criminal. Former Special Jonin of the Hidden Mist Village. Kisame's vicious and sadistic nature have lead to him becoming known as the _ Monster of the Hidden Mist. _Kisame is one of the legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. His blade is the Shark Skin, a sentient sword that can absorb an opponent's chakra making Kisame dangerous even to Jinchuriki and Kage level ninja. Kisame has an almost superhuman chakra level earning him the nickname 'the_ tailless tailed beast'. _Kisame was declared rouge after attempting to overthrow the government of the land of water. Wanted : Dead._

"Fun bunch." muttered Hunter. Final he found the entry he was looking for. His own. "_Hunter. No known last name (possible alias?). B-rank criminal._ "

"B rank!? B-RANK! Those jerks! I should be at least A rank. At Least!"

"_Missing nin from an unknown village. Appeared in the Hidden Leaf for unknown reasons and has thus far eluded capture. He possesses an affinity for both wind and water chakra and has precise enough chakra control to combine the two to use ice style. Hunters chakra reserves are unknown but are presumed to be extremely large as he has been seen to use multiple high level jutsu repeatedly. His loyalties are uncertain however he was seen aiding the Leaf during the Sand-Sound invasion, although this was most likely just a by product of protecting himself. Has also demonstrated physical transformations making him a possible jinchuriki or pseudo-jinchuriki (see Gold and Silver brothers). Hunter appears to have a Kekkei genkai that manifests as glowing yellow eyes but its abilities are not known. He also has knowledge of a justsu that is able to halt the passage of time in a limited area for close to a minute (unconfirmed but unlikely to be false). Wanted : Alive."_

"Ugh." Hunter groaned as he put the book away for later. "Thorn, Nobodies, Pete, a Heartless army and a whole planet out to get me. The fun just never ends."

_Miles away. Hidden Cloud Village. Rikage's office._

The Third Rikage Ay was sitting at his desk, waiting. Saying that the Rikage was a strong man is like saying that a Dragon is a large lizard. Ay had a physique that most men would kill for, adding to that he had a chakra level of near tailed beast proportions making him one of the most powerful ninjas of his generation. And right now every ounce of his will power was focused on not using all his strength to smash his desk in frustration for the hundredth time.

"He should have been here half an hour ago." Ay snarled.

The person he was addressing was Yugito, one of the Clouds best ninjas who had returned from her failed mission and after having a few broken bones set had immediately gone straight to the Rikage's office and demanded to speak with the Villages other Jinchuriki. Yugito was about to speak when the door was suddenly kicked in and the reason for just about every headache that the Rikage had ever had walked in.

"Yoyoyo! You called, he answered. The amazing rapping Killer B is here!"

Ay's eyebrow twitched slightly. "Bee. What took you so long!?"

"Well I-"

"We don't have time!" Yugito interrupted. "Bee this is urgent! Matatabi needs to talk to the eight tails."

Bee was suppressed by Yugito's outburst but he did as he was told and contacted the eight tails, who up until now had been sleeping in an attempt to ignore it's hosts constant rapping.

**_"Mmmm. Matatabi? Did you have to wake me? I was having such a nice dream."_**

**_"Eight'o this is serious!"_ **said the Two Tails _**"That missing Nin they sent us after, Hunter. He's a Dark One."**_

Bee looked confused while the Eight Tails just burst out laughing, then it noticed that Matatabi wasn't laughing to.

_**"You're...serious. It can't have been a Dark One. There just a tale, a ghost story."**_

"Well what we fought was no story." said Yugito.

Matatabi quickly went over the events of the battle with Hunter while the Eight Tails listened with growing concern. _**"That...does sound like the stories."**_

"Is anyone planning on telling _me_ what's going on?" asked Ay who was the only one in the room who hadn't been privy to the beast's conversation.

"Yo, this Hunter be a mighty powerful foe, but what he is you do not know. Do not be fooled by his human disguise, for beneath the man a monster hides." Bee rapped.

"So he's another jinchuriki?"

"A Jinchuriki be a man with a Beast sealed within, but there's nothing in Hunter. The monster is him."

Ay took a moment to digest this information, then he looked up a Yugito. "You want to go after him again, don't you."

She nodded "Yes. Matatabi is very...insistent that we destroy him."

Ay closed his eyes for a moment. Sending away both his villages jinchuriki was not something he thought was wise, but if Hunter was powerful enough to make Tailed Beast's nervous that made him a threat he couldn't ignore.

"Alright. Both of you are free to peruse this 'mission' of yours. Use whatever methods you deem necessary."

"Alright!" yelled Bee. This was his first real mission in ages and he was absolutely rearing to go. "One Jinchuriki he may have defeated, but with two working together history won't be repeated!"

* * *

Not the longest chapter I know, but I think this may be one of the funnest imho.

On another note I've decided that I am going to bring back Danzo, so the next update will include some major tweaks to chapter two. He's just too good a villain to kill off so quickly.

Tune in next time for Hunter vs Tsunade, the biggest summon yet a face off with the sanin and Twilight Thorn's return.

TTFN


	13. Chapter 12

And here's the next chapter. Right, so I've gone back and changed the fight between Thorn and Danzo back in chapter Two, it's now a little longer and with a different outcome. Other than that I've just made a few other tweaks here and there to other chapters but only to change the whole 'Danzo's dead' thing.

Anyway, on with the show. Time to bring out the big guns.

* * *

Chapter 12

"Oh, I am so bored." said Hunter as he walked through the streets of the town, or city or whatever it was he was in. The sun had set long ago and the only light came from the many windows and lamps. Having perfect night vision, Hunter barely noticed the difference.

He'd tracked Naruto and Jiryia by scent all this way and nothing interesting had happened the entire time. By now Hunter was almost praying for a ninja squad to jump out and attack him. The scent trail stopped at a grey stone building that looked to be a bar of some kind. Hunter waited for a while, then one of the waitresses came out, evidently on her way home. Making sure no one was looking he shifted into his girl form and changed his outfit to look like one of the staff, then she slipped inside.

Once she was in Hunter quickly spotted her targets. Naruto and Jiriya were sat at a table in the far corner opposite from two women and a small pig. Trying to look as inconspicuous as possible Hunter walked up to the serving area, picked up an order and brought it to its appropriate table, all the while keeping her eyes on Naruto and company. So far there was no sign of Nobodies, Pete, or Heartless. Feeling a little more secure Hunter decided to risk moving in closer and get a better look at the two women. The first one was younger, twenties maybe with black hair, a pretty face and one or two concealed weapons on her person. The other one, who was playing a game of cards with Jiriya was apparently Tsunade. She looked to be in her forties with blond hair and possibly the biggest rack Hunter had ever seen. She looked down at her own chest. Nothing to be ashamed of but she was completely outclassed by Tsunade.

'Maybe I should make them larger...wait, what am I thinking. Oh I've spent too much time as a girl.'

"Hey, you!" Hunter stood up a little straighter and looked over at Tsunade. "Get me another round of Sake!" she demanded rudely.

Hunter got the distinct impression that she'd had one round too many.

"Hey!" Tsunade yelled again when Hunter did nothing "Didn't you hear me!? I said another round! Or is your brain as small as your tits!"

"Lady Tsunade!" the woman with black hair scolded her but it was too late.

'This. Woman. Is. Going. To. Pay!'

"Certainly miss." she said in a sweet, innocent voice then she left to get the Sanin a very special order.

Moments later Hunter returned with Tsunades latest bottle of Sake, which she placed on the table in front of her. "Enjoy."

Without so much as a 'thank you' Tsunade poured the Sake into her cup and downed it in one gulp. The reaction was instant. Her face turned red and she began clutching at her throat. At first Jiriya and Shizune feared that she'd been poisoned, that was when she shot over to the bar, stuck her head under the tap and began gulping down the cold water.

"You...you...What did you put in Lady Tsunades drink!" Shizune screamed.

Hunter gave her a mischievous smile and said "Sake. And a mix of every hot spice in the kitchen."

Jiriya was bracing himself for when Tsunade recovered, Naruto was just laughing loudly "Spiced Sake! Now that's a good one! HAHAH!"

Hunter turned to Naruto and gave him a seductive smile. "Well, aren't you cute."

Naruto flushed red and started sputtering "Erm...well...I..."

She bent down and leaned in closer to the blushing genin. "Why don't you give me a kiss?"

Naruto's entire face had now turned crimson. "I-I-I...What?"

"You heard me." said Hunter, still leading Naruto on. Her face was now just inches from Naruto's own "Kissssss me." That's when she made her move. Her entire mouth split and changed becoming a black jagged line.

Naruto let out a scream and almost jumped right out of his skin. Jiriya was pretty freaked out too. It was like one of his worst nightmares had come to life. Hunter was of course just laughing, which wasn't really putting anyone at ease. Shizune had no idea what was going on as she was sitting behind Hunter and hadn't seen her change, just the effect it had on Naruto and Jiriya. That was when Hunter slowly turned round. Instantly Shizune went as white as a sheet and retreated slightly into the seat. The small pig sitting next to her attempted to hide behind her, while covering its head with its hooves.

Now that her throat had finally stopped burning Tsunade removed herself from the tap and turned back to face the soon to be dead waitress who'd spiked her drink. "I swear I'm going to rip you he-Kami! What the hell!?"

"Oh, right. You." said Hunter venomously. Tsunade's look of shock grew when the part monster woman before her shifted and changed into a normal looking young man with black spiky hair, who proceeded to say "There is nothing wrong with my tits!"

Large sweat drops appeared behind everyone's heads.

"Just who the hell are you!?" demanded Tsunade once she'd recovered.

"If I had a penny for every time I've heard that." muttered Hunter.

Jiriya poked his head up from behind the chair that both he and Naruto were cowering behind. "T-Tsunade, this is Hunter. He's a-"

"He's an evil, twisted monster who likes to torment people!" interrupted Naruto.

Hunter gave him a hurt look "Harsh man. Real harsh." He turned back to Tsunade "Back to giving you what-for. Put 'em up!" he raised his fists and took up a standard pugilism pose.

Tsunade raised on of her eye brows. "Seriously? You have no idea who you're messing with, do you."

"Just shut up and give me your best shot!" yelled Hunter.

"My best shot? Are you sure?" said Tsunade, who was now smirking. Jiriya and Shizune had both moved further away and taken cover. They knew what was coming next.

Tsunade cracked her knuckles and said "Alright. You asked for it kid!" One very important fact about Tsunade that Hunter wasn't privy to is this. Her physical strength is...let's say...Absolutely monstrous. If she put all her strength behind it, one punch from her could take off the top of a mountain. Naturally she didn't put that much force behind the punch that struck Hunter, but it was enough to smash him through the bar's wall, across the street and through the wall of the building opposite.

Once the dust had settled a bit Tsunade casually walked out of the hole she'd made, put her hands on her hips and stared at the hole opposite where Hunter was lying. "If you ask nicely I might just heal some of your..."

She trailed off when Hunter got back up, dusted himself off and stepped out into the street.

"That all you got?"

Tsunade practical blew steam out of her ears she was so angry. "WHY YOU! I'll brake every bone in your body!"

Hunter didn't have a chance to fight back, he was too busy avoiding blows that could have shattered boulders.

"Hold still!" yelled Tsunade.

"NO! I may be crazy but I'm not stupid!"

Jiriya, Naruto and Shizune were all watching this fight from the relative safety of the bar's broken wall. "I give him two minutes." said Jiriya.

Hunter caught Tsunade's next punch, the force of the blow making the ground beneath him crack and give way. With her right hand caught Tsunade tired to hit him with her left fist but he caught hold of that too. The pair were now engaged in a strength contest, both pushing against each other. So far Tsunade was winning but Hunter as starting to push back with surprising force.

'He's almost as strong as the Rikage' thought Tsunade. "Give up kid. You can't overpower me."

"I-hmmph-am...not losing- grr- to some old bat..with more up front than up top!"

Tsunade's response was and angry growl and an increase in force making Hunter slowly slide backwards.

"That's it!" yelled Naruto "I'm not sitting this one out!" He jumped out through the hole and into the street. Tsunade and Hunter were distracted and didn't see him at first. "Time to bring out my new jutsu!" Naruto brought his hands together so his left was a few centimetres above his right and began focusing his chakra. Energy built up rapidly between his palms and in no time the chakra shifted into the visible spectrum giving off a bright blue glow.

Tsunade and Hunter were now both looking at Naruto.

Tsunade recognised the jutsu instantly 'The Fouth's jutsu?'

'That's a lot of power' thought Hunter 'If he can control all that I'd be surprised.'

The blue ball of energy finished forming and Naruto charged forwards straight at Hunter. He and Tsunade broke away from each other, avoiding Naruto's attack. Unable to change course Naruto ended up planting the sphere in the space where Hunter had been where it instantly blew up in his face, knocking him onto his back in a cloud of dust.

"Just what the heck was that?" asked Hunter.

"It's called the Rasengan." said Tsunade, curtly. "I take it that you taught him?" she asked, looking at Jiriya, who'd stepped out onto the street.

"Well of course. I'm the kids teacher, aren't I."

Hunter looked at the hole the sphere had made, then at Naruto. "Well, I'm impressed. That's got to be the third largest pot hole I've ever seen."

"ARRRGGGG! That's it!" roared Naruto "I've had enough of you and you smart ass comments! For once can't you just act seriously!"

Hunter was slightly taken aback by Naruto's sudden outburst, then a sly smile spread across his lips. "So, let me get this straight. You want me to stop kidding around..."

"Yes."

"..stop goofing off..."

Jiriya's eyes widened as he realised where this was going. "Um Naruto."

"Not now Pervy Sage. Yes."

"...stop holding back..." Hunter's smile grew.

That's when what he was implying hit Naruto.

"And take this completely, one hundred percent seriously. Ok then." Hunter closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Now you've really done it Naruto." said Jiriya, who's voice had taken on that same high pitched tone it always did when he knew he was in trouble, or got caught peeping.

"Really Jiriya." Tsunade still was not impressed "How dangerous can this kid be?"

Hunter's eyes opened. They were now glowing yellow. "**Assuming direct control." **

Before anyone had time to blink he'd shot forwards, grabbed Jiriya by his shirt and lifted him off his feet. **"I am limitless. **_**You**_**, are bacteria."** then he threw the Sanin a good ten meters down the street.

Naruto lashed out with a kick to the back of Hunters leg that did absolutely nothing, the only one who was hurt was Naruto himself. **"Your attack is an insult."** Hunter gave the genin a backhanded whack that sent him flying into a wall. **"My attacks will tear you apart."**

Tsunade aimed a punch at Hunters head but he sidestepped her. **"Your allies have failed."** He dodged another punch then vanished in a flash of speed only to reappear behind her.**"And now you stand alone."**

That was when Shizune joined the fray with an upwards kunai slash aimed at Hunter's face. **"An annoyance. Limited utility."**

Tsunade threw another punch at Hunter who dodged it by back flipping high into the air and landing a few meters away from the pair. Jiriya and Naruto had gotten back up and raced over to stand by Tsunade and Shizune.

**"The forces of the universe bend to me."** Hunter took up a stance that mirrored Naruto's when he'd tired to use the Rasengan and created a Dark Bolt between his palms.

'No way.' thought Jiriya 'He can't have copied the Rasengan just by seeing it once.'

Hunter dug his fingers into the dark bolt causing its energy to flare wildly. "Now!" he yelled, his voice having returned to normal. "Black Rasengan!" he shot forwards, pulling back his arm not, aiming at anyone in particular. The ninja group was force to jump out of the way as Hunter slammed the bolt into the spot where they'd just been. The dark bolt exploded like dynamite, throwing up a cloud of dust a debris that temporarily obscured Hunter from view. When the dust settled Hunter was standing in the middle of a shallow crater that was twice the size that Naruto's Rasengan made.

"A Black Rasengan?" Naruto repeated in a quiet voice.

"You. How do you know how to do the Rasengan!?" demanded Jiriya.

Hunter shrugged and said "I don't."

"What!" yelled Naruto "Are you serious!? Are you really going to say you can't do something you JUST DID!"

"Calm down Blondie. My Black Rasengan is nothing like your jutsu. I just made it up and named it that because they look similar. That's all."

Jiriya nodded, seemingly accepting this answer 'That makes sense. Still, that Black Rasengan may only be an imitation but it looks deadly all the same.'

"You just 'made up' an advanced jutsu on the spot?" Hunter looked over his shoulder at Tsunade "Yeah right. You don't' even look smart enough to work a toaster!" she turned her attention to Jiriya "And you. What were you thinking teaching this kid the Rasengan. You and the Fourth Hokage were the only ones can use that jutsu. What's the point of teaching it to someone who can never master it. Giving him false hopes like that. Filling his head with stupid ideas. Making him think he could actually be Hokage."

"I'll show you who's stupid!" yelled Naruto "Just wait! Just wait! Give me just three days and I'll have that jutsu down flat!"

Tsunade smirked at him "Watch what you say kid. I might just hold you to it."

"I said I'd do it and I meant it. That's my ninja way." said Naruto with conviction.

"Wow. I can't decide if he's stupidly brave or bravely stupid." muttered Hunter.

"Well then. Care to make a bet on it." offered Tsunade

"A bet?" Naruto looked confused.

"I'll give you one week. If you can master that jutsu by then I'll admit I'm wrong and that you're worthy of becoming Hokage. I'll even throw in my necklace." She pointed at a simple looking jade necklace that hung about her neck.

"Lady Tsunade no! You don't really mean that." insisted Shizune.

Naruto put his hands behind his head and said in a disinterested voice "Nah. You can keep it. I'm not really into jewellery."

"You numbskull." said Jiriya "That necklace belonged to the First Hokage himself. There are only two like it in the world. Why that little thing is worth three gold mines and the mountains on top of them."

Naruto's eyes temporarily transformed into yen signs, then he agreed to Tsunade's bet "Lady, you've got yourself a deal."

"Alright. But if I win you admit that I was right. And I get all the money in frogy here." Tsunade held up Naruto's frog shaped purse.

"Ahh! Not Gama!" cried Naruto as he checked his own pockets trying to figure out when he'd lost the frog-wallet.

"And these people say _I'm _nuts." muttered Hunter just loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Who asked you flash-light-eyes?" said Tsunade.

"One more insult from you Grandma and I'll hit you where it really hurts." threatened Hunter.

Tsunade gave a snort of laughter "Ha! Do your worst brat."

"Can't say I didn't warn her. Alright. You're lying." Tsunade's smirk vanished "Even if Naruto wins you're never going to fork over that necklace."

"What?!" Naruto angrily butted in "We had a bet Lady! You can't just back out on it."

Tsunade said nothing but she did look away from Hunter.

"That necklace is tied to your worst and most cherished memories." Hunter continued "Half of you wants to throw it down a well and the other half can't bear to let go. Until one side wins out you won't part with it."

Tsunade was clenching both her fists tightly now "Shut. Up." she hissed.

"Hey. I warned you."

"I said SHUT UP!" she screamed at him.

"OR WHAT!?" Hunter yelled back. "Just 'cause you gave up on your dreams doesn't mean the rest of us have!"

Before anyone could stop her Tsunade had charged forwards and hit Hunter square on the forehead. Nothing happened for a second, then a crack appeared starting at his forehead and running down the left side of his face until it stopped at his jaw.

Everyone one just stared at him, unsure how to react.

"What the..." was all Naruto could manage.

Hunter raised his hand to cover up the crack "We'll call this one a draw." then he turned and started walking away.

"Hey wait! yelled Naruto. "You can't just leave. What happened to your face, just what are you?"

Hunter stopped in his tracks.

"You don't know do you." said Jiriya.

"I know exactly what I am." said Hunter plainly "And believe me. That's even worse." then he disappeared into a black portal.

'I'm starting to understand.' thought Jiriya 'He's not a jinchuriki, he's an actual tailed beast.'Hunter

_Miles away._

Hunter reappeared in the wilderness to the towns west. "Ah snap." That had not gone how he'd hoped. Tsunade had broken his armour, nearly revealing the Heartless underneath. Hunter liked to think of himself as human or at the very least forget he was a Heartless but today that lovely delusion had come crashing down.

Hunter wandered aimlessly for a while until he found a small cave and went inside. The current occupant, a large brown bear, was less than happy at having it's sleep interrupted. It reared up on its hind legs and roared at the intruder. Hunter's mouth split open as he let out an even louder roar that was accompanied by a powerful gust of wind. The bear gave a submissive whine and trotted out of the cave in search of a new place to sleep.

Hunter sat down and just stared at the rock wall. Time passed and eventually sunlight began to stream in through the entrance.

"Rough day huh?"

Hunter looked up and to his left and saw...

"Riku!? When did you get here?"

The teen shrugged "About two minutes ago. I said 'hi' but you were kind of lost in your own world."

"Oh. Sorry, I'm just...mmm." Hunter let out a tired sigh.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Hunter stood up and started pacing to and fro. "I'm feeling...I don't know, I just. Every time I look at someone now I feel like...I want to eat them. I want to hurt them. I've almost killed someone twice now a-and what happens if I don't stop myself next time?"

Riku nodded in understanding. "You're afraid of losing control."

"Dam right I'm afraid. I need to keep a lid on this. Keep myself 'normal'."

"Ignoring your nature's not really much of an answer."

"Well then what do you suggest? Therapy?"

Riku shrugged "How about a spar?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow "Really? That's your solution?"

"It always helps with me." said Riku as his blade materialized in his hand.

Hunter started smiling, then his eyes began glowing and he turned to look through the cave walls.

"Trouble?" asked Riku.

"Sort of. A lot of people parked outside. I can't go one day without someone trying to kill me." Hunter focused on one person in particular. "Her again?"

"Need any help with this?" Riku offered.

"Nah. I'm-" Hunter stopped mid sentence, struck by a moment of inspiration. "Actually..."

_Meanwhile on Apocoly-erm, I mean, outside the cave._

"He's in there." said Yugito.

"If he's there then why are we, up in this tree?" asked Bee.

Both Cloud jinchuriki had been sitting in the branches of a large tree for the better part of two hours now and Bee was starting to get restless.

"There's no way to get into that cave unnoticed." said Yugito. "We wait for Hunter to leave, then we attack. And in case you haven't noticed, we're not the only ones here."

Aside from the two Cloud ninja there were two other shinobi teams present all in the trees around the cave, and Yugito knew that if she knew they were there then they also knew where her and Bee were. One of the main downsides of being a jinchuriki was that it was very difficult to hide her chakra signature, and it was downright impossible for Bee. Stealth missions were not their strong suite.

"You want Hunter out of the cave? Then I'll call him out and see if he's brave." rapped Bee.

Yugito was about to say 'no' when the entire cave exploded in a ball of fire that rocketed twenty feet up into the air. It defiantly got Yugito's attention.

Someone leapt out of the flames and landed a few feet away from the conflagration. At first she thought it was Hunter but she quickly realised it was someone else. This stranger had shoulder length spiky silver hair and wore a long black coat. In his right hand he held a strange blade that was styled to look like a bats wing, which he was currently holding up by his head, like a scorpion ready to strike.

Yugito briefly wondered who he was, then Hunter appeared, slowly walking out of the flames, his two chain-hooks dragging behind him.

"I've been waiting for you, Riku-Wan. The circle is complete. Now I am the Master!" Hunter declared as he swung his chains over his head, then down at Riku.

The silver haired teen dodged one chain and blocking another, grabbing hold of it and yelling back "Only the Master of Evil Hunter!" then he pulled, dragging Hunter forwards, trying to slash at him with his blade.

Hunter turned his fall into a roll, avoiding the sword and ending up behind Riku. He pulled on his chains, dragging them towards him and forcing Riku to jump out of the way. He fired two dark bolts which Riku deflect into the ground where they exploded in showers of dirt.

"You're powers are weak, old man. You should not have come here." Hunter taunted.

"You cannot win Dark. Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

The two ran towards each other but stopped when a kunai landed between the two of them. One of the ninja teams had come out of hiding. There were eight of them, six men, two women. Half of them had large scrolls slung over their backs which marked them out as a sealing team. All of them wore headbands with a star symbol on it.

"Hoshigakure." groaned Yugito.

"I take it you know these guys Yugito!?" Hunter yelled up at her and Bee's hiding place.

'Dam he's got good hearing' she thought as both her and Bee jumped down out of the tree.

"Ok, now that just leaves you three!" Hunter pointed up at another section to tree line. After a moment's pause three more ninjas dropped down to ground level. They weren't wearing headbands but from the general look of them Yugito guessed that they were from the Hidden Mist.

"Still sure you don't need help?" asked Riku.

"Nah, I got this. Finish this match later?"

"That was you fighting? I thought you were just play acting." said Riku as he vanished into a dark portal.

"Hey! Get back here and say that to my face you ya...hey...Riku! Ah Snap."

"Wait." said one of the Hidden Star ninja "So, all that was just for our benefit?"

Hunter smiled and nodded "Yep. Now for introductions, who are you and what do you want." He pointed at the squad of Star ninjas and said "Go!"

"We are representatives of the Village Hidden in the Stars." said the closest ninja, a man with brown spiky hair who was apparently the team leader. "We're here to retrieve you by the order of the Hoshikage."

Hunter reached into his back pocket and brought out his stolen bingo book. "Hmm, Kage..kage. Here we go. Hokage, Raikage, Mizukage, Tsuchikage...That's it. There's no Hoshikage in here."

"That's because there isn't a 'Hoshi' kage." said Yugito, not bothering to hide the contempt in her voice and ignoring the angry sneers from the Star ninjas. "The leader of the Star village calls himself a Kage but he has no right to the title."

"That brings us nicely to you Yugito and...sorry, who are you?"

"Yo! I am...The amazing rappin' Killa Bee! Jinchuriki of the mighty Eight Tails, ya fool!

"O...Kay. So, you wanted a rematch and you brought a better team is that it?" asked Hunter.

Yugito smiled confidently "That's right. We're here to put an end to you."

"I'd like to see you try. That just leaves you three."

One of the ninjas, a woman with short black hair stepped forwards. "We are not here to fight, Hunter. We came to deliver a message from the Mizukage."

Hunter blinked a few times "That's... new."

The woman calmly walked towards Hunter, producing a sealed envelope from the pocket of her fleck vest and handing it to him. He carefully opened it, convinced it would explode at any second. When it didn't he removed the letter and read it.

"Ok, let's see here. _'Dear Hunter'. _Good start, nice and formal. '_If you are reading this then you are a very hard man to find. It's not every day I have to personally dispatch a hunter team just to deliver a message, but if half of what I've heard is true, it will be worth it. I know that my fellow Kage have been less than amicable towards you' _You can say that again. '_but then they never did know how to say 'please'. So consider this an invitation to the Hidden Mist Village. I look forward to hearing your reply._

_Yours faithfully_

_Mei Terumī. Fifth Mizukage.'_

'A letter from the Mizukage?' Yugito had not been expecting that. 'I suppose that makes sense. Kiri lost the Three Tails so their down one jinchuriki, and now they want Hunter to replace him.'

"Well, thanks for being...nice." said Hunter as he handed the letter back. "But I'm afraid I'm gunna have to say no. I've already got a mission. An important one an-"

While Hunter had been distracted The leader of the Star ninjas had quietly signalled his team to start using their sealing jutsu. The four ninjas with scrolls on their backs had suddenly appeared around Hunter, unrolled their scrolls and started making rapid hand signs. Instantly a ring of glowing green runes surrounded Hunter accompanied by a rising ethereal light.

"Oh no, not this time!" Hunter leaned his head back and opened his mouth, which had split into its jagged, black Heartless form.

**'What the!?' ** declared then Eight Tails in surprise and alarm. **'Matatabi was right. He is one of the Dark Ones.'**

The runes on the ground began to vibrate, then they flew off the floor and into Hunter's open mouth. In a matter of seconds he'd consumed the entire seal.

Everyone just stared at him, dumbfounded.

"He...ate the seal." said one of the Star ninjas, eventually.

"That I did." confirmed Hunter as he cracked his knuckles. "Now, I'm gunna pound all of ya into-oooh!" He stopped mid sentence and placed his hand on his stomach. "Into-Mmmph!" he was interrupted by an apparent stomach cramp again.

"You seem to be in pain. Care to explain?" rapped Bee.

"Gaah! It's that seal I ate. It's hard to digest." Hunter gave another groan and slowly turned so his back was now facing the Yugito, Bee and the Star ninjas. His tail suddenly grew out of his lower back, surprising everyone again. It waved around for a second, then it bolted upright.

Yugiot's eyes widened in horror. "Oh no. Not that! AHHHHHHHHHH-"

**PPPPPFFPFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT!**

When Yugito woke minutes later she found that both she and Bee had been blow backwards by about a mile. The forest looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. Trees had been blown over or completely uprooted, several large rocks had been thrown about and the Star ninja team were currently strewn about in various uncomfortable looking positions.

And of course, Hunter and the Kiri nin were gone.

Bee got back up and surveyed the destruction for himself. "Seems like Hunter has left us in the dark, after blowin' us away with a killa'...um, Yugito?"

Yugito had gone red in the face, was grinding her teeth and clenching her fists so tight they were shaking.

"Ut oh." said Bee

Yugito threw her head back and yelled "Ffffffffu-!"

_Far away._

"Well, we weren't followed. So that's something." said Hunter. He and the three Mist ninja had left shortly after the super fart had blown everyone else away, none of them wanting to be there when the two Kumo jinchuriki came to.

"Are you sure you won't reconsider the Mizukage's offer?" asked one of the ninjas.

"No." said Hunter, firmly. "Having a bit of fun with you lot is one thing, but actually taking sides is-" he froze mid sentence, then he swung out his left arm sending out one of his chain hooks.

For a second the three ninjas thought he was attacking them, then the chain hit something red that exploded mid air. They all spun round to face where the attack had come from. Standing in the branches of a tree not far away was possibly the strangest sight the ninjas had seen yet. The attacker had the general form of a man but it was all in the wrong proportions. He was dressed mainly in white and purple and was armed was a large and strange looking crossbow.

A glowing red laser bolt materialised in the bow and then it fired at them. Once more this shot was deflected by Hunter. More strange white suited beings appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Much like the first one they had vaguely humanoid bodies but all where warped in some way.

"Ah snap." said Hunter. "You three. Run back to your Mizukage and don't stop until you're standing in her office. Got that?"

Several Dusks darted forwards only to get caught in Hunters chain attacks and destroyed. The Mist ninjas all body flickered away, leaving Hunter to face the Nobodies.

"Alright then!" Hunter charged his right arm with darkness, transforming it into a Heartless claw. "SAVAGE CLAW MODE!" the he charged towards the Nobodies, slicing apart Dusks and Creepers. The Sniper in the trees took another shot at him but Hunter jumped up off the ground and kicked the laser bolt away, causing it to hit another Nobody.

Hunter threw his chains upwards, shredding through the branches and just narrowly missing the Sniper who was forced to jump out of its perch. Hunter dashed towards it, pulling back his claw to finish it off just as it aimed its loaded crossbow at him. His claw smashed through the Nobodies chest and it disintegrated, but not before it fired a laser bolt point blank into Hunter's stomach.

"AHHGH! Jab, bloody...snap that! Hurts." Slowly he reached down, grabbed hold of the bolt then after closing his eyes he pulled it out in one go. "YEEEOW!"

"Interesting."

Hunter spun round on the spot and saw an almost identical copy of himself standing a few feet away. "Twilight." he snarled.

"You remembered. Good. It's nice. To be remembered."

"Shut up!" ordered Hunter. "What do you want with Naruto?"

Thorn tilted his head to one side as though he was curious "Why do you care?"

"Is that even a serious question? Why shouldn't I care?"

"You a Heartless." Hunter flinched slightly but didn't back down as Thorn continued "These people are your food. You should be attacking them. On sight."

"I'm not like the others." countered Hunter.

"Simple thought. Belief. Does not make you different." Thorn took a few steps forwards "You want to forget. Pretend you're something else. I can. Understand. But you can't change your nature. Sooner or later. The Hunter of the Dark will emerge."

Hunter gritted his teeth and griped his chains more tightly. "What do you want with Naruto?" he repeated.

"Figure it out." a black portal began to appear around Thorn. Not wanting to let his Nobody get away Hunter surged forwards and tried to trap him with his hooks but he was too late. Thorn disappeared moments before a hook flew through the space where he'd just been.

"Oww! He got away again! Dam that guy gives me the creeps."

After carefully healing the hole in his stomach Hunter decided it was probably a good idea to find Naruto again and stick to him like glue. Whatever Thorn and the Organisation were up to here it involved Naruto in some way. The question is, why him? Was Thorn after that Nine Tailed poodle? No, if he wanted to simple whisk Naruto away and pull out the Fox he'd have done it by now. There was more to this than just getting more power but Hunter still couldn't see the whole picture yet.

For the next few days Hunter stayed within sensing range of Naruto at all times. And It was possibly the most boring, tedious thing in the world. Fortunately for Hunters sanity a few Creepers showed up every now and then and when the Nobodies were nowhere to be seen he found a new way to pass the time. Beating the snot out of local criminals.

Currently he was holding a mugger upside-down while the old woman he'd been trying to rob was beating him with her walking stick.

"OW! Stop! OW! I said I'm-OW!"

"Alight I think he's had enough." said Hunter.

"Oh, just one more." said the old woman.

"Hunter shrugged "Ok. Just one."

The mugger looked up at him incredulously. "What!?"

"Oh suck it in would ya. It's just one more-"

The old woman brought her cane smashing down onto the man's groin. He let out a long high pitched scream, then Hunter dropped him and he curled up into a ball.

"That looked painful." observed Hunter. Then he sensed something. Naruto was on the move.

Hunter ran off in the same direction staying just close enough to keep the boy in sensing range. He could see Jiriya and Shizune with him but he could also feel someone else further away but still heading in the same direction. It took Hunter a moment to recognise it as Kabuto.

'If Specs is here that means Lizard Man is to.'

Focusing his hyper hearing Hunter listen to Shizune explain the situation. Apparently She and Tsunade had met Orochimaru a week ago where he'd made the Sanin an offer. She'd heal his arms and in return he'd bring her dead lover and younger brother back to life.

'To heck with this. Time to deploy sonar.' Hunter stopped in his tracks and focused on expanding his sensor net. Eventually he found who he was looking for, Tsunade, Orochimaru and Kabuto were to the west and from the sound of it they were fighting.

"Gotcha." he said as he opened a black portal.

_With Naruto and Jiriya_.

Now Jiriya was far from a pessimist but he had to admit that things were not looking good for them at the moment. Tsunade was down, Kabuto having used her intense phobia of blood to debilitate her. He himself had been drugged by Tsunade earlier and was still suffering from side effects. The only two there who were in top shape were Shizune and Naruto and they were no match for Kabuto or Orochimaru.

Still, at least Orochimaru's arms were still useless. That was something.

Naruto was still reeling from the revelation that Kabuto was a spy and had only helped him in the chunin exams as part of his mission.

"I found out something very interesting about you Naruto." said Kabuto. "You have no ninja talent whatso-"

He was cut off when a black portal appeared a ways behind him and Hunter materialised surprising all present.. The dark haired teen looked around as though he was confused.

"Be this some dream I wake from? Am I in Dwarven lands? Why seem their roads so empty?" he asked of no one in particular.

Naruto was more confused than ever "Dwarven? What?"

That was when Hunter noticed them. "You! Serve you at the temple of Dumat? Bring me hence! I must speak with the first acolyte."

"Pervy Sage, what's he talking about?"

"How should I know?"

"You look human." continued Hunter "Are you not citizens of the Empire? Slaves then, to the Dwarves? Why come you here? Whoever you be, you owe fealty to any Magister of Tevinter! On your knees! All of you!"

Everyone just stared at him for a moment, then he broke the silence "Sorry. I thought this was Shakespeare in the park."

Naruto and Jiriya fell over backwards while Shizune just blinked a few times.

Kabuto threw a Kunai at him but it harmlessly bounced off Hunters head.

"Ow! Tis this a dagger I see before me?"

"Well well. This is a surprise." said Orochimaru, as creepy as ever. "I didn't expect to find you here. Hunter. Especially not after failing to save Sarutobi."

Hunter just gave a bestial growl in response.

"Hm hmhm" the Snake Sanin gave a sly chuckle. "Kabuto."

The spy nodded and bit his own thumb, drawing blood. Then He took hold of Orochimaru's useless left arm and pulled back his sleeve revealing some kind of tattoo on the man's forearm. He smeared a line of blood over the tattoo and called out "Summoning justsu!"

There was a huge puff of smoke and two monster sized brown snakes appered.

Hunter heard another yell of "Summoning jutsu!" from behind him and turned to see a small puff of smoke appeared before Jiriya. When it cleared it revelled...a small orange frog.

"What's up?" it said in a cocky voice.

"What the!? Why are you here?! Where the hells your father!?" yelled Jiriya.

"Hey, hey. Long time no see." said the toad, apparently oblivious to Jiriya and Naruto's reactions.

"Well well, Jiriya. Still playing the fool I see." taunted Orochimaru "You always were ridiculous but this time you've outdone yourself. Clearly our Tsunade has gotten to you somehow."

"Your jutsu did require a sacrifice." suggested Kabuto. "Perhaps she was thinking ahead. Drugging him somehow to suppress his power."

"To think she would make a sacrifice of Jiriya. Well, just as ruthless as ever aren't you Tsunade."

'Well how do ya like that' thought Jiriya 'he's already spotted my weakness.'

"Hmhmhm. You're as big a disgrace as the day we met."

Having had enough of Orochimaru, Naruto decided now was the time to act. Quickly he bit his thumb and began his own "Summoning Justu!" There was a small puff of smoke that parted to reveal...a small yellow toad.

"What? What happened!? Where the heck did I go wrong!?" yelled Naruto.

"Hi everybody." said the toad in a easygoing, slightly dumb voice. "Hey friend. How are ya?"

The orange toad looked over at the yellow one "Hey. Gamatatsu. Why did you pop out? Where's the old man?"

"Gamakichi, what's goin' on. This is the first time anyone's ever summoned me. I'm finally gettin' a chance to shine."

Gamakichi was not impressed. "You dummy! Get some munchies and find a place to hide, will ya."

This did not have the desired affect "Wait, they got snacks here. Gee wiz this is the coolest."

Hunter face palmed three times, then he just pinched the bridge of his nose "Un. Be. Leavable."

That was when Orochimaru and Kabuto attacked, the two massive snakes launching themselves at the leaf ninjas.

"Jiriya is mine, the rest are yours to play with!" said Orochimaru.

"Too bad. I was hoping to test my metal, against one of the sanin!"

Hunter launched himself into the air, slamming into the snake Kabuto was riding. The Sound Spy jumped off before Hunter could catch him but he did manage to get his hooks into the snakes mouth. sitting atop the reptiles head he used the chain like reigns and redirected the snake away from the others. They still had to avoid the other snake that slammed into the ground, throwing up a huge cloud of dust and rocks.

Kabuto went after Shizune and Tsunade while Naruto ended up being swallowed by the snake. Fortunately Jiriya was able to stop the thing by creating a small swamp in which the snake became trapped. Soon after Naruto crawled out of the things mouth, but it did manage to use its body to smack him into a large boulder.

Looking down Hunter could see that Kabuto had incapacitated Shizune and was now attacking the helpless Tsunade.

"I am going to rip him apart! Raar**GHHHH!"** Hunter's mouth split and he began to glow with a black aura. He pulled on the chains again, brutally twisting them and snapping the snakes neck. It promptly vanished in a plume of smoke and Hunter fell, crashing into the ground.

Kabuto was about to punch Tsunade again, but suddenly Naruto appeared in his way and his punch instead hit the blondes forehead protector.

"You-Huh?" Kabuto noticed the ground next to him bulge. It was all the warning he got. Hunter suddenly burst up out of the dirt, claws first, coming straight for him. The spy was just fast enough to get out of the way.

Hunter stood where he was for a moment, clenching and unclenching his claws, then he started muttering, "Calm blue ocean. Calm blue ocean." Slowly his hands changed back to normal and his chains disappeared in a puff of black smoke. "Ok, I'm calm. But I'm still gunna kick your ass."

He looked over at Naruto, raised his hand and said "Cure." A ring of green ethereal flowers appeared above Naruto's head for a second, then vanished. When they did all his wounds were healed and he felt like he'd just eaten a Food Pill.

"Huh? What did you do?" asked Naruto.

"Healing Spell. And you'd better be grateful. That used up all my magic. I can't do anymore until I recharge."

"What!?" yelled Naruto. "You could have just stopped time and-"

"Oh shut it! Wisdom is easy with hindsight."

That was when Kabuto butted in "If you two are quite done. This won't be like last time Hunter. I'm not running."

"Your funeral. Ok Naruto, here's what we'll do." That's when Naruto ran past him to engage the enemy. "Hey! Oh well. That was the plan anyway." Hunter ran after him.

Naruto conjured up another Rasengan ball as he ran, planning to finish off Kabuto quickly but the Sound spy had other ideas. He dodged Naruto's attack with ease and used his own chakra scalpel jutsu to sever some of the boys leg muscles, crippling him. That just left Hunter.

'Blast it! I can't Move!' realised Naruto from where he knelt on the ground. 'If he uses that attack on my arms I won't be able to use the Rasengan!'

Kabuto dodged on of Hunter's punches and touched his arm with the scalpel. He was surprised when Hunter used the same arm to grab him and toss him several feet away.

"How...why didn't that work?" asked Kabuto as he got back up.

"Tell you a little secret. I've got no muscles or internal organs. That energy blade is useless against me, Specs."

Kabuto's eyes flicked up, then he looked back at Hunter and smiled. "Alright, let's see if this works." He threw a single tagged kunai at Hunter who having learned from the past batted the thing away.

"Ha!" then he saw that Kabuto was still smiling. He looked up and saw another tagged kunai in the rock just above him. It exploded, breaking off part of the boulder which fell down towards him.

"Oh bugg-"

SMASSH!

Kabuto smiled to himself. Naruto and Hunter were down. Now he could finish off Tsunade and...Naruto was standing again and once more he was between him and Tsunade.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you."

"I said I wouldn't run away and I won't. I never go back on my word." said Naruto.

"Little kids think life is so easy. That's why they go on about their dreams. Why they never give up." He drew a kunai out of his pocket.

"Naruto! Get out of here!" yelled Tsunade but Naruto stayed put. He made one hand sign and made a single shadow clone next to him.

Kabuto rushed forwards "You've just thrown it all away! Dreams don't come true when you're dead!"

"Just get out of the way Naruto!"

"Get ready to pay up on that debt. Your cursed necklace is about to be mine!"

Just as he was about to stab Naruto the boy reached up and grabbed his hand, cutting himself on the kunai in the process. Kabuto tried to pull back but Naruto wouldn't let go.

Over by the fallen boulder the top half of Hunter's body popped out of the ground. "Pfft! What's happening? What'd I miss?" he asked after spitting out some dirt.

"Until I become Hokage. I don't care what happens, I'm not gunna die! Ok, let's see you dodge me this time!"

Naruto's clone began collecting and compressing chakra in the originals free hand.

"Another Rasengan?" wondered Hunter. "No. This one's better. More stable. I'll be dammed. The kid actually did it."

Naruto rammed the blue ball directly into Kabuto's stomach and held it there. The ball expanded and grew, then it shot forwards, pushing Kabuto along in front until he was smashed into a large rock several meters away. Amazingly Kabuto was still standing, his shirt had been ripped and he had a large burned crater in the flesh of his belly, but he was still breathing. Naruto took a few heavy breaths, then he fell backwards.

Hunter focused in on the boy's body. 'I see. Kabuto must have touched him with the energy blade. He's got a lot of internal damage around his heart. And I still don't have my magic back yet.'

Fortunately for Naruto Tsunade finally pulled herself together enough to get up and rush over to his side.

"You, how are you even still standing?" she asked.

Kabuto gave a dry chuckle "I focused my chakra at the point of impact. Before he'd even hit me I was healing." as he spoke his injures healed themselves without leaving so much as a scar. "Now you see why Lord Orochimaru values me. Not just for my jutsu, but for my resilience. No matter how great the injure I can repair and reenergise any damaged cells."

"That sounds like a challenge to me!" yelled Hunter as he pulled himself up out of the ground. "Nice move by the way. I didn't see that coming."

'Dam it, he's recovered! I didn't think he'd dig himself out so soon' thought Kabuto. He looked over at Tsunade and Naruto. 'I'll have to finish this qu-'

"Arrgh!" Kabuto let out a cry of pain then he dropped to the ground.

"So, couldn't heal all your injuries could you." said Hunter. He ran over to Tsunade and Naruto, the medic nin had already opened Naruto's jacket and sliced through his shirt and now had her green chakra covered hands over his chest.

"How's he doing?"

"Not good. The muscles around his heart have been torn to shreds." answered Tsunade.

"Give me thirty seconds and I can do another healing spell."

"He doesn't have thirty seconds!"

"He's finished!" yelled Kabuto from where he lay. "I cut off his heart from his chakra system. Even the demon can't save him now!"

Naruto stopped breathing.

"Don't die." said Tsunade, who was barely holding back tears. "Don't die."

"He won't." insisted Hunter.

Seconds passed that may as well have been years. Then Naruto's hand reached up and gently took hold of Tsunade's necklace.

"Hey...don't forget...our bet." he just managed to say. "Told ya...I'd win." then he fell unconscious.

"He's...still alive." Kabuto couldn't believe it.

"Told ya." said Hunter, who got up and took a few steps towards Kabuto. "Luck, man. It protects children, fools and ships named Enterprise. Naruto's got two out of three so he's not going to croak any time soon."

Kabuto gritted his teeth in rage, then he spotted something out of the corner of his eye that made him smile. "Actually his luck just ran out!"

Hunter sensed it before he saw it. Orochimaru flew horizontally past him, a blade protruding from his mouth. There was a loud and horrible shhick as it struck...Tsunade. She'd gotten in the way, and been impaled through the chest.

Orochimaru withdrew and the blade retracted back into his throat. "Tsunade. You are the one person I wouldn't want to kill. Listen to me. If that brat is allowed to live, it will mean more trouble than you or your friends can ever imagine. Stay out of my way."

"No. You listen to me." Tsunade's voice was trembling slightly as she spoke. "If I do nothing else I will protect this boy."

"And how do you plan to do that, your body is shivering like a leaf in the wind. Besides, why would you, one of the sanin, risk your life to save a lowly genin."

Tsunade coughed up some blood. "By saving him. I'm saving my home. The Village Hidden in the Leaves."

That wiped the smirk of Orochimaru's face. "You really think you're protecting the village."

Hunter hadn't said a word, he was far to enraptured by something going on inside Tsunade's Heart.

"You see, this boy. This lowly little genin. Has been chosen by fate to be Hokage someday."

That made the Snake laugh. "What nonsense. Even if it is true, who cares about the Hokage! Only a fool would want that job."

Tsunade was quiet for a few seconds, then she shakily got to her feet. "From now on. I'm gambling everything to. I'm putting my life on the line."

"Well, if you're willing to throw your life away for one insignificant brat, I'm happy to accommodate you!" Orochimaru's blade shot back out of his mouth as he swung his whole body to strike at Tsunade. The blade was just inches from her when someone caught it. Orochimaru's eyes widened in surprise and then he saw Hunter standing right next to him.

"I don't get it." said the teen. "You. You're not the same Tsunade I met a week ago. How can you have-" that's when he remembered.

_"What do you want with Naruto?" _

_"Figure it out."_

"I see. That's why."

"Why what?" demanded Orochimaru, even though he was in no real position to demand anything.

"You wouldn't get it. Your Heart is weak. You'd make a great Nobody. But you'd be a poor Heartless."

"What does any of that even mean!?"

"It means you're porked. And Tsunade here is about to kick the crap out of you."

Orochimaru smiled around the sword in his mouth "Ha, how is she going to do that!? She can't even stop trembling. She's too afraid of blood."

Now it was Hunter's turn to smile "Three...two..." Tsunade stopped trembling. "One." Quick as a flash she punched Orochimaru square in the jaw. At the same time Hunter let go of his sword and the sanin went flying.

"Took you long enough." said Hunter.

Tsunade gave a dismissive 'humph' as her answer.

"You need healing?" he asked.

"No. I think I'll rely on my own healing jutsu." The small diamond shaped mark on Tsunade's head came apart, becoming irregular lines that snaked across her forehead.

"No, Lady Tsunade!" Yelled Shizune "Let me treat your wounds! Don't break the seal!"

She didn't listen, she made a simple hand sign, then a thin red aura covered her body for a second, then the lines on her head faded. And all her wounds healed.

"It seems I'm not the only person who's been spending time discovering new jutsu. This one's very impressive. How's it done?" asked Orochimaru.

"My chakra. For years for years I've stored it up in a space behind my forehead. Saving it for just such an occasion. With this chakra reservoir my bodies ability to create new cells is accelerated. The cells divide rapidly, spreading throughout my body and regenerating any damaged organs. It's like having the ability to reincarnate myself. You see you can slash away at me all you want, but I can't be killed."

'What she doesn't say is that a person, any person, even her can only generate new cells a limited number of times' thought Shizune. 'If you speed that up, you shorten your life.'

Tsunade drew a line of blood on her forearm.

'That can only mean one thing' thought Kabuto "Lord Orochimaru!"

The snake sanin jumped over to his fallen minion who also drew a line of blood on his masters arm.

Further away Jiriya bit his thumb and performed a similar action.

They slammed their palms into the ground and all cried out "Summoning Jutsu!"

One giant puff of smoke later and Hunter found himself standing on top of , of all things, a giant white and blue slug along with Tsunade and the still unconscious Naruto. To their right was Jiriya, who'd summoned some kind of giant jacket wearing, pipe smoking toad. And of course there was Orochimaru's summon. A huge purple snake.

"Where are the Power Rangers when you really need them." muttered Hunter.

"How ya doin' daddy!" yelled the small yellow toad from where it was down on the ground along with the pig Tonton and Gamakichi.

The giant snake turned one of its eyes on the trio.

"Ut oh, he's looking right at us." said the orange toad "Hey Gamatatsu, time to skedaddle!"

"But it's just getting exciting."

"SHUT UP AND RUN!"

The massive toad led out a puff of smoke. "Manda and Orochimaru. Tsunade and Katsuyu. All the old faces together again. Did you bring a hanky Jiriya, I think I'm going to cry."

The Toad Sage smiled slightly "You old fool. I didn't summon you here after all this time just to listen to your stupid jokes." He looked out at Orochimaru "This rivalry's gone on long enough, time to end it. Today, I'm putting Orochimaru out of our misery. Once and for all."

"Well Orochimaru. Why did you drag me here? You know I don't like being summoned." said the giant snake, menacingly. "Maybe I should just eat you and be done with it."

"No! Please don't talk that way Lord Manda." begged Kabuto "You'll be well rewarded for your trouble, don't worry."

Manda was not placated in the slightest by this "Who do you think you're talking to you little bug?! What would the like of you have that I could possibly want!? Bah!" Kabuto had no answer for him. "So Orochimaru, when this is over I'll expect a hundred human sacrifices."

"Katsuyu. See to the boy. Take him to Shizune at once." said Tsunade.

"Yes My Lady. At once." surprisingly the slug had a very soft feminine voice. A smaller version of the massive slug grew up from its own skin underneath Naruto, then it carried him away.

The giant toad, Gamabunta, blew a stream of smoke at the snake.

"I'm going to pop you like a balloon you dirty stinkin' toad!"

"Just try it. I've always wanted a snake skin wallet."

"This thing is a snake?!" Everyone looked down at Hunter, who'd somehow gotten from on top of Katsuyu to the tip of Manda's tail without anyone noticing. "I thought it was a giant flat headed earthworm."

The snake moved its body so it was facing Hunter. "What did you call me!?"

"Oh, so snakes do have ears after all. I called you an earthworm you legless geko!"

"Why you insolent little...!" Manda lifted his tail and brought it smashing down on Hunter, but when he lifted his tail there was no body underneath.

"What?"

That's when they heard it "OH! Earth Worm Jim! We think he's might fine!" Hunter was standing on the underside of Manda's tail. And he was singing. The giant snake tried to crush him again by slamming his tail into a rock, but Hunter vanished just before impact.

He reappeared on the ground to Manda's left "Earth Worm Jim! A hero for all time!"

"SHUT UP!" Roared the snake.

"No Manda you fool. He's baiting you!" warned Orochimaru but his words fell on deaf ears.

Manda surged forwards intending to swallow Hunter whole but every time he got close Hunter back flipped away, all the while singing "Earth Worm! Earth Worm! EARTH WORM!" Then he stopped running away and jumped up onto Manda's head, passing Orochimaru and Kabuto and jumping off one of Manda's horns. "Hor! Ray! For! JIM!" then he landed on the ground between the three Sanin and their summons.

"Ha! Did you summon me here to fight Jiriya, or to watch a comedy show?" joked Gamabunta.

"Play time's over." said Hunter as he let a summon charm drop out of his sleeve. "Time to bring out the big guns."

The charm began to glow brightly and then it began to transform, becoming larger and larger.

"Oh, I know what this is! Prepare to be smashed by God-"

The summons stopped growing and glowing. Hunter looked down, eyes wide "...Zilla!?"

Hunter was standing on top of a huge two legged lizard, with two long arms, a long tail and blue sail like spines running the length of its back.

"AH! I tried to summon the King and instead I got the Joker!"

"That's not what you were trying to summon?" asked Jiriya.

"No you old coot! I was trying to summon Godzilla, the monster king. Instead I got a box nosed. Flat headed. Chicken legged. No-atomic-breath-having. French-Polynesian. WATER IGUANA!" Zilla flinched backwards with every yell.

"That's enough!" Manda seized the opportunity to attack, striking out against Zilla and Hunter. His massive jaws opened wide and bit down on...thin air.

Zilla was now standing right behind Manda.

"Wow. You're fast." admitted Hunter.

Zillar ran forward, avoiding another bite from Manda by power sliding underneath his head. Then he jumped up onto Manda's back, and bite down on the space behind the snakes head. Manda let out a roar of rage, then fell backwards in an attempt to crush the other lizard but Zilla let go at the last moment and rolled away to the side.

The massive snake let out a grunt of annoyance, then it shot off to the left to go after the slug. Manda may have been a giant but he was as fast a lightning. In moments he'd wrapped his body around Katsuyu and began crushing her.

Gamabunta tried to stab Manda's head with a massive, thin bladed knife but the snake avoided it and then bite down on the blade, holding it in place. That's when Zilla attacked, it took a running start at Manda then it leapt into the air, spinning round and round like a demented Catherin wheel aimed at Manda's head.

The snake twisted, releasing Katsuyu, pulling the sword away from Gamabunta and avoiding Zilla. The snake then came at Zilla, trying to slice him apart with the blade. Zilla's spines began to glow, then he opened his mouth and a jet or blue flame blasted Manda right off the ground. The snake let go of the sword, which flew up into the air, where it was caught by Gamabunta who immediately rammed the blade down through Manda's mouth, pinning the snake to the ground.

"So you do have atomic breath after all?" said Hunter.

Zilla gave a roar of approval in response.

The battle wasn't over yet though. Orochimaru saw his chance and sent his long tongue out, wrapping it around Tsunade's neck even though she was all the way up on top of Katsuyu.

'Ha. You say you can't be killed in battle. But what happens If I strangle the life out of you as fast as you can regenerate it?'

Tsunade's strength was fading fast but somehow she managed to get her arm up under Orochimaru's tongue and get it off her neck. Then she pulled as hard as she could. The snake sanin was lifted off his feet straight towards Tsunade who punched him in the face with all her might. He was sent rocketing back towards the ground but he managed to do a mid air recovery and landed on his feet.

"Oh no you don't!" Tsunade jumped down after him. but before she could get to him Hunter teleporting in his path.

"Time for my greatest taijutsu move." he announced. "The Boreal Attack!" He body flickered away, then reappeared behind Orochimaru, punching him in the ribs. "Multiple!" he vanished again, then hit the snake in the face "Simultaneous!" this time he kicked the side of his knee, breaking his leg "And devastating!" elbow to the back of the head "Defensive!" punch to the face "Deep Strikes!"

Orochimaru staggered backwards.

'Time to end this!'

"There is no time to be lost! Battle Brothars!" Hunter gave him a right hook to the face.

"Todeh we are in SPESS!" left hook to the face.

"We die heroes deffs!" three punches to the gut.

"But we shall not die, no!" several punches and a kick.

"It is the enemy who will tehste deff-" Hunter jumped off the ground, spun in the air "- and da feet!" and smashed his foot into Orochimaru's face with all his strength. The snake man was sent flying back and slammed into the side of Manda.

"Lord Orochimaru!" Kabuto jumped down to aide his fallen lord.

Hunter just stood where he was, then he proclaimed "I am a SPESS MAHREN! I AM THE EMPRA'S FUREH!" A background slide appeared showing a power armoured bald eagle haloed by light behind him and two space marines on either side holding massive chapter banners.

Despite themselves Jiriaya and Tsunade both sweat dropped.

"Orochimaru. I'd eat you right now. But thanks to this hole in my mouth, I won't be eating solid food for at least a week." grunted Manda. "If we ever meet again. Well, just hope that we don't!" then he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"It's over." breathed Tsunade.

"Don't count on it." muttered Hunter, who was looking balefully at the smoke. She followed his gaze and saw that, amazingly (or horrifyingly) Orochimaru was standing, although he was slumped over and breathing heavily.

"So then Tsunade. I take it this means that you refuse to heal my arms? No matter. I still have one other option."

Hunter gritted his teeth. "He's gunna swap bodies again."

"Swap bodies!?" Tsunade looked disgusted.

Jiriya was equally nauseated 'I thought there was something different about him.'

"I hope we all met again soon...my friends." rasped the Snake Man as he slowly sank into the ground and vanished.

"We'll met again." said Kabuto smugly. He made one hand sign , then he vanished in a puff of smoke.

"I hate that guy." said Hunter. He looked up at the giant lizard standing behind him "But I'm starting to like you. Good job out there."

Zilla gave a quiet growl of thanks, then he began to glow and shrink back into a charm that flew down into Hunter's waiting hand.

"Three out of four now. I wonder who the last one will be?"

"Thanks for your help." said Jiriya, who jumped down to ground level now. "But I'm afraid this doesn't change anything. You're still a wanted criminal in the Leaf."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." said Hunter as he started walking away.

"Wait!" Tsunade called after him. "Before, you said that you understood now. Understood what?"

Hunter didn't answer.

"Enough secrets." said Jiriya. "Whatever you're doing here I can tell it has something to do with Naruto and I demand to know what it is!"

"Naruto's going to be fine." Hunter turned to face them all. "Soon I'll complete my mission and leave. You'll all wonder about me for a while, then you'll start to forget. I'll be a funny story you tell from time to time. A bed time story for your kids and grand kids. And I'm sorry about before." he drew a line down his face with his finger where Tsunade had cracked his armour. "You weren't supposed to see that."

"Just what are you?" asked Shizune. "And tell us the truth this time. No riddles."

Hunter shrugged "Not sure entirely. My best guess is I'm an idiot who jumped into the abyss. And it swallowed me whole. Oh, now before I go." He pulled out the bingo book from his back pocket. "This entry on me is a disgrace. I want to be at least A rank. Got that! And I want all my stats listed as..." he paused for breath "OVER NINE THOUSAND!" then he vanished into a black portal, leaving everyone else blinking in confusion.

"Something tells me that one'll be trouble in the future." said Jiriya. "We're going to have to keep a closer eye on Naruto from now on."

_Miles away. On the road back to the Leaf._

"Today was good." said Hunter to himself was he walked down the dirt path. "Now I've figured out what Thorn's after it just a matter of time before I take him down. And then...home. Yep, things are going my way."

There was a puff of smoke in front of him and Yugito and Bee appeared.

"Oh snap."

"We finally caught up with you." said Yugito.

"You've lead us all across this land. But the game is up, your end is at hand! Ya fool!" rapped Bee.

"You'll pay for ruining this golden moment!" Hunter let his finally summon charm drop into his hand. "I can feel it. This is my most powerful summon yet! You're in for a world of hurt!"

_Somewhere close by_.

"Target acquired." said the leader of the Star ninjas. As one they jumped down from the trees to face Hunter. "We've got you this time!"

Hunter turned to face them but he said nothing.

"You'll pay for humiliating us Hunter!" said another ninja "We're going to drag you all the way back to Hoshigakure if we have to!"

Something stepped out from behind him. It had a vague appearance of a woman but it was also defiantly not human.

"What the? What on earth is that?"  
The Dancer Nobody took a step forward so she was now next to Thorn.

"Don't risk yourself." he said plainly "I'll deal with them." The Dancer seemed to hesitate for a moment, then it moved away. "This conversation isn't over. I'm still angry at you. For fighting Hunter." then the Dancer vanished into a black portal.

"But you are Hunter. Aren't you?" asked a ninja.

"I am Thorn. And I am not please with your. Interruption." He pulled a card out of his pocket and examined it carefully. "Ironic. Indeed." he placed the card on the ground and it began to glow, forming a digital outline of something big. Slowly the details were filled in. The black trench coat. The yellow mottled skin pulled back over skinless lips.

The Star ninjas stepped back in horror as the beast finished forming.

"Data Nemesis. Exterminate." ordered Thorn.

The replica monster began to implacably walk towards the ninjas. Some of them, threw kunai at it but it didn't seem to notice or care. It just kept coming. Then it spoke in a gurgling, distorted voice.

"Starssss."

* * *

So the massive summon is...Zilla. I did originally want to go with Godzilla but I though he's just too powerful. I needed something that could fight Manda but wasn't actually stronger than him. So I picked Zilla.

Next episode will include the Final Summon Charm, a mass ninja brawl, a dark deal goes down and Yugito and Bee find out what happens when you push Hunter too far.

TTFN


	14. Chapter 13

And here's Chapter thirteen, fresh off the press.

**theblacklightprojekt**: Thanks

**Guest : **_Awesome work. Maybe Hunter could use his power to make Sasuke face his own dark side. Could be interesting. Good Luck. _: Hmmm. I haven't really planned anything like that but it's an interesting idea.

**Goldspark1:** Not always. Some truly powerful opponents are coming up and Hunter won't be able to breeze through all of them.

**Bl4ck st4r :** Why thank you kind sir.

And now, the main event. Enjoy and as always please Rate and Review.

* * *

Chapter 13

_**'Stop him before he uses that charm!' **_ yelled Matatabi.

Bee and Yugito ran forwards as their respective tailed beasts cloaked them in a translucent skin of red chakra. Hunter never got the chance to activate the charm. The two Jinchuriki slammed into him and the three of them ended up on the ground, with Hunter stuck underneath. The charm flew out of his hand and landed on the ground somewhere above Hunter's head.

The three of them were on the ground struggling for a few seconds when they all heard a loud 'Caw!'. Looking up Hunter saw a large magpie had landed close by and it was eyeing up his summon charm.

"Don't you dare!" he warned.

The bird ignored him. It hopped over to the charm, cocked its head curiously, then it snapped it up in its beak and flew off.

"Hey!" Hunter threw off Yugito and Bee and ran after the bird, jumping up into the air every now and they trying to catch it. "Give me my charm back you feathery thief!"

Suddenly Killer Bee appeared in Hunter's path. "Can't escape, no runnin' this time! Stand and fight, face your-Ooff!" Hunter jumped off of Bee's face and just kept going after the bird.

"Not interested! Call back later!" A chakra tail wrapped around his waist and slammed him into the ground.

"You're not escaping this time Hunter!" said Yugito. "We know what you are Dark One! Whatever you're up to it ends here!"

"I am NOT going to lose control again." insisted Hunter as he got back up. "And FYI. I'm not a 'Dark One'." Hunter started to conjure lightning in his hands "We're called the Heartless!"

Bee and Yugito charged together, launching themselves at Hunter.

"STOP!" both jinchuriki were caught in the spell and frozen in time "In the naaame of love! Before you break my heart!" He brought out his pen and quickly drew a moustache on Yugito before going back to chasing after the bird. Another little side benefit of his Heartless vision was that he could see the magic in the charm glowing like a tiny star. Curiously though the charm wasn't in the air anymore, it was much closer to the ground. Hunter soon found out why. As he drew closer he saw that the bird had apparently dropped the charm and it had been picked up by a travelling salesman, who'd stashed it in the back of his horse drawn wagon.

By the time Hunter caught up with them the wagon had already reached its destination. The Hidden Leaf Village.

"Oh snap." Getting chased around the village by every ninja therein was not on today's to-do list. But he needed that charm back and who knows what could happen if someone bought it and figured out how to used it. Adopting the disguise of a black cat Hunter jumped over the walls in a single bound and landed gracefully on a rooftop. The travelling merchant had already set up his stall, along with a few others, on the villages main road.

'Now, all I have to do is-'

"How about this one Konohamaru?" Udon and Konohamaru had walked up to the stall, and were now looking at Hunter's summon charm.

"Perfect! Moegi's gunna love this!" They brought the powerfully magic charm for a shamefully low price and walked off with Hunter following them from the rooftops.

'I need to get that charm back without raising the alarm.'

Eventually the two ninja's in training arrived at a small apartment building and made their way to one of the upper rooms. Hunter went straight for the building's roof and immediately started looking for a way inside. The first thing he noticed was an air vent, but it was too small even for his cat form.

'I'm going to have to go smaller.' he thought. He closed his eyes and focused on becoming as small as he possibly could. He felt his body shift and change as it did whenever he transformed and once it was over he opened his eyes. All eight of them. He'd managed to turn into a big, hairy tarantula. Walking on eight legs was not an easy task but after falling over several times Hunter soon got the hang of his new bug body and he scuttled into the vent.

By sheer luck it lead him to the exact room he wanted to be in. Peering out through the vents grill he could see Udon, Moegi and Konohamaru below.

"Happy birthday Moegi!" said Konohamaru as he presented the girl with the charm.

Hunter crawled out though the vent and ran up the side of the wall onto the ceiling. A smaller spider was in his way and when it saw him approach it immediately went on the offensive, raising its front legs and chattering _"My space! My space! Mine, mine, mine!"_

Hunter lashed out at it while clicking out a _"Buzz off!"_

The smaller spider retreated _"Ekk! Your space. Your space. Yours, yours, yours!"_

Looking down Hunter saw that Moegi had put the charm on a small table while she and the others had their backs turned to it. Now was his chance. Hunter attached a sticky silk line to the ceiling, then he let go and fell, the spider silk line slowing his decent. He made a few acrobatic twirls on the way down then he cut the strand and fell the last few centimetres. He landed right on the charm, he had it in his hairy spider legs.

"Thanks Udon. This will go great with-" without looking round Moegi reached out for the charm and instead put her hand on Spider-Hunter. Both she and Hunter slowly turned to look at each other, making eye contact at the exact same time. All the colour drained out of the girls face.

'Oh snap'

"AAARRRRGHHH! SPIIIDERRR!" Moegi let out a scream that was probably heard all over the village. She jumped up on to a chair, never taking her eyes off the massive arachnid looking back at her. Udon took one look at the spider and back up against the far wall.

The only one who was un-phased was Konohamaru, who gave his friends a pitying look. "Oh come on guys. It's just a spider." he walked up to the table and brought his palm smashing down on the bug in an attempt to squash it.

Hunter reacted almost on instinct. He grabbed Konohamaru's hand in two of his legs then he flipped the kid right over the table and onto the floor on the other side. Moegi screamed even louder, if that was possible while Hunter continued to fling Konohamaru around, smacking him into two chairs, a lamp and a pile of birthday presents.

He lay there in a daze for a while, then the super spider leapt off the table and landed on his face. Konohamaru took one look at the eight black eyes and large fangs, then he let out a yelp and tried to bat the spider away, but it jumped off him before he could hit it. As the spider sailed through the air Konohamaru got back on his feet and started putting some of his academy training to use. He took out a wooden practice shuriken from his back pocket and threw it at the spider, hoping to knock it out of the air.

Hunter caught the wooden shuriken and landed on the windowsill where he slung the weapon over his thorax, taking up a stance similar to a full sized person with a windmill shuriken. Konohamaru blinked a few times. First this spider had thrown him about like a sack of potatoes, now it was staring him down almost daring him to attack again.

"Time to go squish you stupid bug!" Konohamaru ran forwards, but he'd not taken three steps when Hunter threw the wooden kunai at him. It hit him right on the forehead with just enough force to stagger him. Fast as a bullet Hunter shot down from the window, landing at Konohamaru's feet when he lifted the boy off the ground and began spinning him round and round, faster and faster. That's when Hunter attached a silk strand to Konohamaru's leg. In a matter of moments the boy was all wrapped up so only his head was free. Hunter stopped spinning him, threw him up into the air, then he jumped up after him, delivering a two legged kick to the stomach that sent him crashing into the opposite wall.

"Oww" Konohamaru groaned. The super spider landed on his chest. It was still holding the wooden shuriken and now it also had the charm he'd brought for Moegi. It gave him one last smack on the head, then it launched itself at the window, smashing right through the glass on its way out.

"Wha-wha-wha-" was all Moegi could stammer.

After struggling for a moment Konohamaru managed to sit up "Don't just stand there guys, get me out of this. We have to warn everyone! The Leaf is under attack by Super Ninja Spiders!"

By now Hunter had made good his escape. With no one about he'd changed into a new form. A perfect copy of Naruto.

'Now I just have the wait for the Nobodies to come to me. Hehehe.'

"Hey brat." Hunter stopped dead in his tracks. He'd know that voice anywhere. He turned round and found himself directly in front of Anko's chest.

Hunter jumped back, feigning surprise "Gaah! Y-you! The crazy lady form the chunin exams!"

Anko's eye twitched angrily "My name's Anko, in case you forgot. I thought you were going to be out of the village for another few days kid. What happened?"

"Well I-"

"Anko." Yūgao, the purple haired sword wielding ninja walked up next to Anko.

'Snap! If either one of them see's anything wrong it'll take all day to lose them!'

That was when Yūgao noticed 'Naruto'. "Hm. Naruto? What are you doing back so early? Was Jiriya's mission a success?"

"Erm, well-I, um-"

"Hey, kid!" the owner of a small shop they were standing next to yelled at him "I've told you before, stay the hell away from my store! You're driving my customers away you brat!"

Yūgao and Anko both shot him murderous looks before looking back down at Naruto. He'd lowered his head slightly so his eyes weren't visible. Both of them knew about the grief he got from the villages civilian population (and some of its dumber shinobi as well). They were about to offer to take him to Ichiraku's when 'Naruto' suddenly reached out, pulled Yūgao's sword right out of its sheath and began marching towards the shopkeeper.

"I'm just going to borrow this Yūgao. I'll be back in a minute." he raised the blade over his head, then he chopped the man's stand in half. The shopkeeper stood immobilized for two seconds, then he ran away as fast as he could with 'Naruto' chasing after him.

"GET BACK HERE! When I get hold of you I am going to ram this sword so far up your-"

"Shouldn't we stop him?" asked Yūgao. When Anko didn't answer she looked over at her and found the woman was crying a river of anime tears.

"I couldn't be more proud of that kid right now." she said in a pride choked voice.

Yūgao sighed, then she looked back at 'Naruto' who was still chasing the shopkeeper round in circles. "Naruto, that's enough! Give me my sword back!"

'Naruto' stopped chasing the man and grudgingly handed back the sword. 'Maybe from now on people will be a little nicer to Naruto.' he thought.

"So, was Jiriya's mission a success?" asked Yūgao, again.

"Erm, yes. He...found Tsunade. WE found Tsunade. They...sent me on ahead to err deliver the good news. They should be here...soon?"

The two kunoichi looked at each other, surprise written all over their faces.

"I didn't think Jiriya could convince her to become Hokage." said Yūgao.

"Me neither. This means I own Kurenai a hundred yen. So what did happen exactly Naru-"

'Naruto' had completely vanished, leaving the pair scratching their heads and wondering just where had he gone.

As soon as they hadn't been looking Hunter had bolted, vanishing into a maze of side streets and back alleys. He was currently just at the mouth of a side street, looking round behind him to make sure he hadn't been followed.

"OK." he said to himself "No more games. No more distractions. I've got to find the Nobodies before-"

That's when, of all people, Hinata Hyuga walked round the corner and almost bumped into him. He was about to say 'hi' then make his excuses and leave but he never got the chance. Hinata's face turned tomato red, then she fainted on the spot. Hunter changed back into his regular form and looked down at her, dumbfounded.

"Spiffing. Absolutely spiffing. Great! One dead, ten to go!"

And then Hiashi Hyuga appeared round the same corner his daughter just had. He was just in time to catch the 'one dead' part and then he saw his daughter lying unmoving on the ground in front of Hunter.

Hunter's eyes flicked from Hinata to her father then he raised his arms and said "I swear, this ain't what it looks!"

Hiashi wasn't really listening right then. With a cry of rage he ran forwards, activating his Byakugan and...stopping in his tracks. He wasn't angry anymore, he was horrified by what his enhanced eyes were showing him.

"T-that's...not...What are you?!"

Hunter suddenly became deadly serious "Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to." then he turned and ran.

Hiashi didn't follow, he was still trying to reconcile what he'd seen. "No...nothing inside. He isn't human."

Hunter kept running until he had put several blocks between himself and Hiashi before he came to a halt on a rooftop. 'That's not good. Now he's seen me he'll raise the alarm. So much for no distractions.' Deciding that he should not be out in the open Hunter slipped down the side of the building and in through an open window. Several doors lined the corridor he found himself in but one in particular caught his attention.

"Inoichi. Counselling. Hmmm. Inoichi, I remember him. The blond guy with the mind transfer power" forcing the door open Hunter stepped inside a averages sized room with one large window, a lounge chair, a regular chair and some filing cabinets. He went straight for the cabinets. Yanking open a random draw he started thumbing through the paperwork. He discovered that theses files were records of Inoichi's sessions with various ninjas, most of whom he recognised. He grabbed one file from the 'T' section.

"Tsume Inuzuka. Let's see here. Volatile, aggressive. Knew that already. Blah, blah is absolutely terrified of the...Hm...hm..hahahahahaMUAHAHAHA! Yes. That I can do."

_An hour later_

"Still no sign of him." said Kuromaru.

"That won't last long. He can't resist causing trouble." replied Tsume. She and her dog were patrolling Konoha, like just about every other ninja in the village, looking for any sign of Hunter. Apparently the insane missing nin, or whatever he was, had returned and Tsume was eager to finally have her revenge on him.

"Hey! Dog lady!"

Tsume spun round and saw that her target was standing just a few feet away, smiling arrogantly.

"Looking for me?" he asked rhetorically before diving into the building next to him.

Enraged Tsume went after him followed by Kuromaru. As soon as she went inside however she knew she'd been duped. The room she was now in was pitch black, no doubt set up for an ambush. She was about to go back out the door when it shut behind her, eliminating the light completely.

"I'm disappointed Tsume." said Hunter.

Tsume tried to use her enhanced senses to find him but there was some other smell in the room that was masking him. Tsume thought she knew what the other odder was, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"You're late for you check up." Hunter continued.

'Check up? What is he-'

The lights came back on. The room was mostly white with occasional posters on the walls emphasising proper dental care, there was a single chair in the middle with a large adjustable lamp above it.

"T-this...this is a." Tsume stammered. She turned round, planning on breaking out through the door but her path was blocked by none other than Hunter. He wasn't wearing his usual all black outfit, instead he had a large white medical coat covering a blue shirt and trousers.

"I am your dentist! I have a talent for causing things pain!" Hunter sang as he hit Tsume in the stomach, sending her flying back into the chair. "I am your dennntisst! People pay me to be inhumane!" suddenly he was standing right next to Tsume's head, firing up a small dentist's drill then he started drilling into one of her teeth. Tsume let out a cry of pain, then she bolted out of the chair, smashed through the door and off into the distance. Hunter stepped through the ruined doorway, laughing to himself as he watched her go.

"Hahaha! That's two, one to me! Hahahaha!"

Just round the corner from all this were Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji. The first clue they got to Hunter's presence was Tsume running past them at break neck speed.

"Erm...mum?" Kiba looked puzzled, then Kuromaru ran up to them.

"Hey, Kuromaru. What's up with mom? She'd looked like she'd seen a ghost."

"Worse, it was-" the dog was about to explain when Hunter walked into view. "Him!"

Hunter gave them all a broad smile and a wave.

"You...you! What did you do!" yelled Kiba.

"Gave her a dental check up." chuckled Hunter.

"ARRGHH! THAT'S IT!" Kiba ran forwards along with his dog Akamaru. The two of them launched into the air and spun at beyond normal speeds "Fang over fang!"

Hunter dodged their attack, which tore a chunk out of the ground instead.

"Hey." Ino, Choji and Shikamaru looked down at Kuromaru "You guys try and hold him here for a while, I'll round up the villages elite. He's not getting away this time!" The three teenagers nodded and the one eyed dog ran off.

"Expansion jutsu!" Choji's body ballooned in size, then he started spinning on the ground before launching himself at Hunter screaming "Varroooommm! The Human Boulder!" Choji slammed into Hunter's outstretched palms, forcing him back several meters and carving a line in the dirt. Once they'd stopped Hunter punched Choji sending flying back past his teammates where he crashed into the ground.

"Ooww. Did I get him?" he asked.

Hunter dodged a bite from Akamaru, kicked Kiba aside, then he charged at Shikamaru and Ino. "Game over for you two-woah!" He'd gotten about half way to them when a huge blade on a stick embedded itself in the ground in front of him. Looking up and to the left in the direction it had come from Hunter saw Tenten and Neji up on the roof of a building overlooking the street.

"Damn, I missed!" said Tenten as she and her teammate jumped down to the ground.

"Haha, very funny." said Hunter sarcastically. He looked Neji up and down "You've changed. Naruto helped you work through that superiority complex of yours, right."

Neji seemed surprised 'He can tell just by looking?'

"Ha, if you mean Naruto smacked him on the head and he's not an asshole anymore, then yeah!" said Kiba.

That was when two more people showed up from Ino and Shikamaru's direction. Shino, Sakura and Hinata, who'd apparently recovered from her faint earlier.

"Just peachy." muttered Hunter.

"We came as soon as we heard." said Sakura.

"Hunter. Or is it Thorn?" asked Shino.

Everyone looked confused except Hunter who suddenly became serious.

"Thorn?" asked Ino.

"Kiba, Hinata and I all meet someone in the forest a weeks ago." explained Shino "Someone who looked a lot like Hunter, but he was different. Much colder. More efficient."

'Thorn was in that same blasted forest and I missed him!' thought Hunter.

"So wait, there's two of them?!" exclaimed Choji, who didn't like the sound of that.

"One was troublesome enough." agreed Shikamaru.

"Will you all stop talking about me like I'm not here!" said Hunter, angrily.

"You're right. We've talked long enough." everyone looked round at the other end of the street, behind Hunter where-

"SASUKE!" yelled both Ino and Sakura at the same time, their eyes transforming into anime hearts.

Sure enough, the Uchiha prodigy was standing at the other end of the street, a few feet behind Hunter.

"So you're back now too. So that makes it, let's see..." he made a point of counting each of them before continuing "eleven against one, not counting the dog."

"Erm, not counting Akamaru, there are ten of us." Tenten pointed out.

"No, eleven." said Hunter as he leaned to the side to look past the genin.

Cautiously they turned round to.

Rock Lee was running up to meet the group. He stopped next to his stunned comrades and took up his trademark taijutsu stance.

"Hunter. You will fall here today!" he proclaimed.

"Lee!? What are you doing here, you should still be in hospital!" insisted Tenten.

"She's right Lee, you're in no condition to fight." said Shikamaru.

With a determined expression on his face Lee ran forwards before his friends could stop him. "I may not be at my best but-GAHH!" Suddenly Lee fell, giving a cry of pain and clutching at his left leg. He skidded to a halt just in front of Hunter, who knelt down over him.

'Torn muscles, crushed bones. It's a miracle this kid can even walk.'

"I'm going to kick myself for this later. Cura!" Lee was momentarily surrounded by a ring of spectral green flowers. When they vanished he found that all the pain in his arm and leg were gone. He got up and experimentally flexed his previously damaged muscles, finding that they were as good as new.

"Ta-da." said Hunter.

Lee wasn't too sure how to respond but eventually he managed a "Thank you." followed by "But...I still have to help bring you in."

"Humm. Well, ok. Alright kids, come at me with everything you've got!"

All the genin got into their combat stances, the two Hyūga's activating their Buykugan.

Hinata froze and started shivering in fright while Neji just looked horrified.

"W-what.." he stammered.

"Neji, what is it?" asked Tenten.

"H-he...he hasn't got a chakra network!"

Ino, Sakura, Sasuke and Shikamaru's faces changed to mirror the fright of their friends.

"So, what does that mean?" asked Kiba.

"Kiba, a chakra network is spiritual energy present it ALL living things." explained Sakura. "If Hunter has no network then..."

"Hmmm...AGGHH! HE'S UNDEAD!" screamed Choji.

"You have no soul!" said Neji, taking a step back.

"Nope." admitted Hunter. "Soul, shmoul. Who needs it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel very alive right now!" Hunter dashed towards Neji, aiming a punch at his head that the Hyūga dodged at the last moment. Shino sent a horde of flying insects at Hunter, which all got blow away by an air spell.

Snapping out of their surprise the Genin started fighting back but somehow Hunter seemed to always know where their attacks were coming from, even without looking.

"This isn't working!" yelled Tenten as Hunter avoided several of her kunai.

"He must have a three-sixty degree field of vision, like the Buyakuagn!" guessed Shikamaru.

"If there's a way, Sasuke will find it!" said Sakura, who so far hadn't thrown a single punch because she was too busy watching Sasuke.

Hunter turned aside one on Neji's palm strikes, then looked at Sakura and asked "Seriously!? You're joking, aren't you?" He leaned back to avoid a kunai slash from Sasuke. "You're putting all your faith in Captain Emo!?"

"He CAN beat you!" insisted Sakura. "He's smart, and talented and complex an-"

"COMPLEX!" Hunter yelled incredulously as he batted Hinata aside. "I've seen more complexity in a couch from Ikea!" Sasuke gave an angry grunt, then he aimed a leaping kick at Hunters face, which missed. "Shadow the Hedgehog is a better anti-hero than you!" he continued.

Sasuke jumped backwards, brought his hand up to his mouth and "Fire style! Fireball Jutsu!" breathed a large gout of flame that rocketed towards Hunter.

"Oh, please." Instead of jumping out of the way Hunter simply caught the fireball in his hand, then popped it into his mouth and swallowed.

The genin just stared at him, open mouthed.

"H-he...ate it.." Choji stammered.

Hunter smiled at them all "I take my tea hotter than that!" He puffed out his chest then let out a blast of flame from his mouth forcing the genin to run for cover or get out of the way. When the fire stopped Hunter had vanished.

"Where is he?" asked Neji, looking from left to right.

"I AM YOUR DENNNTISST!" Neji spun round, pulling back his palm only for his arm to get caught by Hunter who was now standing right behind him. "And I enjoy the career that I picked!" he flung Neji aside, straight into Shikamaru.

"I am your dennntissst!" he stepped back to avoid an attack from Kiba "And I get off on the pain I inflict!" then he smashed his foot down onto Kiba's foot. The young Inuzuka gave a yelp of pain before he was kicked away by Hunter.

"I'm thrilled when I'm drilling bicuspids!" Tenten and Ino came at him at the same time from opposite directions, both planning to stab him with their kunai. Hunter grabbed both their arms as they closed in them spun round, throwing them both away. "It's swell though they tell me I'm Mal-adj-usted!"

Hinata charged at him, pulling back her arm for a palm strike. Hunter easily dodged her attack and her two follow up strikes, always staying just out of reach.

"That all you got?" he taunted "No wonder Naruto likes Sakura more!"

Hinata froze for a few seconds, then she sprang into action, running past all the other genin and landing a palm strike right on Hunter's chest. The other genin looked on in amazement as the normally shy and reserved Hinata let out an angry yell and continued attacking with no regard for anything else.

"I...don't think I've ever seen Hinata angry before." said Ino.

"I don't think she's ever _been_ angry before." added Shikamaru.

Hinata increased the speed and force of her attacks while Hunter just stood there, like he was just letting her hit him.

"At the rate she's going she'll burn through all her chakra in no time." said Neji.

After another barrage of rapid palm strikes Hinata was almost out of chakra but she was not less angry. Pushing all her remaining chakra into her right fist she hit Hunter square in the jaw with an uppercut that lifted him off his feet, then he feel to the ground and lay still.

Hinata stood where she was as her anger subsided and everything she'd just done began to sink in. The combination of exhaustion, confusion, embarrassment and triumph caused her to faint. Fortunately Neji saw this coming and caught his cousin before she hit the ground.

"Is she alright?" asked Tenten.

As if to answer her question Hinata's eyes fluttered open as she returned to consciousness.

"W-what happened?" she asked, although she sounded a little dazed.

"You...well you...erm..." began Sakura.

"You won!" proclaimed Neji.

Hinata sat bolt upright and looked over at Hunter, who was still lying face up on the ground a few feet away.

"I-I won?" she repeated, unable to believe it despite the evidence before her.

"Yep. Sure looks like it." everyone suddenly looked over at Hunter, who slowly stood up, unharmed and smiling in a genuinely friendly manner. "That was GREAT! I knew you had it in you, I just knew it. All ya needed was the right push!"

Everyone stared at him, incredulously.

"T-the right...just what the hell's wrong with you!?" demanded Ino.

"Everything." said Hunter. He looked off to the left, detecting the presence of more ninjas. "Oooo. More playmates!"

That was an understatement. A small army of ninjas, close to every shinobi in the village, had all turned up, they were either standing on rooftops or assembled on the main street. They all looked ready for a fight but something seemed to be holding them back, perhaps they didn't want to risk the genin getting caught in the crossfire.

Kakashi body-flickered into view amongst the genin.

"You kids, you went to fight Hunter didn't you?" he said as though that wasn't blatantly obvious.

They all nodded.

Kakashi gave a tired sigh "I take it that went as well as ever."

"Hinata beat him." said Lee.

Kakashi thought he was joking at first but when the others confirmed it his visible eye went wide and he just stared at Hinata, who shifted uncomfortably.

"There's something else." said Neji, drawing Kakashi's attention to him. "We found out something new about Hunter. He's...he's..."

Suddenly Hiashi Hyūga burst from the crowd, picking up one of Tenten's fallen blades and before anyone could stop him he'd run Hunter through with it. The first surprise was that there was not blood, the second was when the rest of the weapon was sucked in and spat out from Hunter's back in tiny chunks.

"You have no soul!" yelled Hiashi as he attempted a palm strike. Hunter caught his arm, holding him in place.

"That's why I have NO FEAR!" He was about to give Hiashi an absolute kicking but he was interrupted by...

"LEE!" Might Guy had show up at last and the first thing he'd noticed wasn't Hunter, or the ninja army, it was that his protégé was up and about at last. He was literally tearing up. "I knew you could do it! The Power of Youth conquers all!"

Now Lee was starting to get teary eyed. "Guy-Sensei!"

The two of them ran at each other, going for a full on man-hug. Already a watercolour background of a sunset was fading in when Hunter got between them, flinging out his arms to halt the pair.

"For the love of all the stop signs in the universe! Cease-and-bloody-desist!"

With the two of them stopped, much to everyone's relief, Hunter rounded on Guy. "And it wasn't the 'power of youth', it was me! And seeing as how you repaid me by attacking me" now it was Lee's turn "that's the last time! No more healing for you punch bowl head!"

Guy looked momentarily confused "You...healed Lee's injuries?" then he broke in to his 'thumbs up' pose. "Once gain Hunter you have proven that the Fires of Youth burn strongly within you!"

"Right!" Lee took up an identical pose.

Hunter blinked a few times before asking "Does this mean I get a pardon?"

"NO!" everyone yelled at the same time.

"Oh, why not! Come on, I've help this village out plenty!"

"You've also been a major pain in the butt!" countered Anko, who was up on a roof nearby.

"And you still have my book!" added Kakashi.

"Well, there's another reason." said Guy. "The order to capture you was given by the Third before he died. With no Hokage there's no one with the authority to rescind that order until the Fifth is appointed."

"Exactly." Sakura decided that this was a good moment to chime in. "Only a Hokage can repeal the laws or orders given by another Hokage. So we're just followi-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll blow your head off!" yelled Hunter as a black arua rose up around him.

Sakura shut up quickly. Kakashi tensed up a little, he'd seen what happened when Hunter lost control. Not something he wanted to go through again.

"Sorry." muttered Hunter "Right now, where were we? Oh yes. BYE!" he shot off leaving a cloud of dust behind.

"GET HIM!" yelled Anko. The ninja mob gave chase, apart from Kakashi and the genin.

"Stay here. You aren't to engage Hunter again, am I clear?" ordered the silver haired Joinin.

The children all nodded to show they understood and Kakashi left to follow the others in their pursuit.

'Why did I bother?' He thought to himself 'Those kids never listen.'

_Back with Hunter._

"WAHHHOO!" yelled Hunter as he dodged another kunai. By now he probably had every ninja in Konoha on his tail. And he was loving every minute of it.

"This is the most fun I've ever had!" he picked up speed, gaining more distance from the mob as he ran straight of the Hokage Mountain Monument. Instead of smashing into the solid rock he put one foot on the stone surface and continued running, vertically up the mountain. When he was about a quarter of the way up he looked back and was suppressed to find the ninja mob was still hot on his trail.

"Forgot they could do that too." he muttered as he passed between the First and Second Hokage's giant stone heads. At the mountains peak was a military base that also served as the entrance to a civilian shelter. Hunter stopped just short of this base and turned to face the ninjas, letting his final charm drop from his sleeve.

"We've got you now!" said Anko, who was at the head of the mob.

"Don't count on it!" said Hunter as the charm activated. "Yes. I can feel it! This is the most powerful one yet! Brace yourselves for my summon..." the charms light faded to reveal...nothing!

Confused, Hunter looked left and right for his summon.

"Baaa."

He looked down. Standing between him and the ninjas was a grey furred, droopy eared, dumb looking...Goat.

"A goat. My final summon...is a goat." The ninjas were just as dumbstruck as Hunter was, they were all either trying to stop themselves from laughing or just staring stupidly at the goat.

The goat gave another loud "Baa!"

"Oh, and how exactly can you get me out of this hmm?" asked Hunter.

"Baa."

"You can...how?!"

The goats body changed into a glowing light that shifted and changed. When the glowing died down the goat had been replaced by...an ostrich.

"Well, that's very impressive." said Hunter, dryly. "Only one problem. Ostriches are flightless birds!"

"Hoonk!"

"What!? You're clearly an Ostrich, there is no such thing as a 'feather goat'!"

"Hoonk!"

"Ostrich!"

"HOONK!"

"OSTRICH!"

The former goat started pecking Hunters head.

"Ow ow ow! Alright you're a feather goat, you're a feather goat! Now stop pecking me!"

"Hoonk!" the ostri-feather goat bent down, forcing its head and neck under Hunters legs making him fall onto its back. It spread its small wings and flapped, launching itself and Hunter up into the air and away.

By now most of the ninjas were too bewildered to even attempt to give chase.

"Did...did he just fly away on an ostrich that is also a goat?" asked Anko.

"Um...yeah." said a male ninja next to her.

She nodded quietly and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" someone asked.

"To the nearest hospital to check myself into the psych ward."

Hunter wasn't feeling much better than Anko. He was riding on the back of a flying ostrich over a ninja village. It was almost the definition of insanity.

"This is weird. But still, I've never felt so alive!" Hunters vision telescoped as he looked down at the village. His eyes quickly found the genin group who were still roughly where he'd left them but they were starting to head towards the Hokage Mountain.

"I should really just leave them be...ah, who am I kidding! Charge!"

"HOONNNK!" the feather goat dived down back toward the village.

_With the genin on the ground_

"Hurry up guys!" yelled Ino. "At this rate we won't get there in time!"

Kakashi had left to join up with the other ninjas and pass on their information about Hunter, and he'd given them express orders to stay put. So naturally they were going after Hunter again. They knew he was at the Hokage Monument, they'd watched the chase from where they were and they were all eager to link up with the other ninjas to help finish off Hunter once and for all. Well, almost all of them.

"Slow...down...!" panted Choji, who was bringing up the rear.

"This is a terrible idea!" said Shikamaru for the hundredth time. "We've never actually done any real damage to Hunter before! We should just let the grownups handle him!"

"They're not getting to him before I do!" said Sasuke who was dreaming of having all that power for himself.

"Sasuke's right!" said Sakura, who'd have probably agreed with anything her 'boyfriend' said no matter how dumb or dangerous.

"Yeah, once we get there, it gunna be payback time!" agreed Kiba.

BLAM!

A dark bolt smashed into the ground just in front of them, forcing the whole group to stop.

"Where did that come from!" yelled Ino.

"Above us!" Neji answered.

"AIR RAID!" cried Hunter as he and his steed dived at the genin who scattered to avoid him.

"Wh-what is he riding!?" asked Sakura as she looked round after Hunter.

"LOOK AT MY HORSE! MY HORSE IS AMAZING!" Hunter half sang, half yelled as he jumped off the ostriches back and landed on the ground. His summon crashed into the floor a ways behind him, but it got up and trotted over to stand next to him. "You kids are in for it now, for I have be joined by the mighty Feather Goat!"

"Hoonk."

No one was quite sure what to say.

Finally Kiba managed to speak up "Erm...that's an ostrich."

The feather goats eyes burst into anime flames as it let out an furious "HOONK!" Suddenly it began glowing as it transformed back into its original goat form. Something was different however, its fur was no longer grey but bright white.

"Baaa!"

Hunter cocked his head to one side "Blue Streak? You're not blue you're..."

The goat began spinning on the spot, going so fast it turned into a blue blur that shot forwards smacking into Sasuke and launching him backwards. Both Ino and Sakura tried to attack it at the same time by the goat vanished in a blue flash of speed and the two young konochi collided with each other instead.

The goat changed again, its grey fur returned but it had also become far more muscular than before.

"Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba and Akamaru went into their spinning 'fang over fang' attack which the goat met head on with a simple headbut. Kiba and his dog were thrown back while the goat hadn't so much as blinked.

"That is enough!" yelled Neji. "We will not be made fools of again!" the young Hyuga ran at the goat preparing to deliver an open palmed strike when suddenly the goat transformed again. Neji's blow did not hit flesh and bone but solid metal and steel. The goat had become a robot with a egg shaped main body, a blue screen as a face, two small legs, long arms that connected to large three fingered mechanical hands.

The robo-goat punched Neji in the stomach, winding him and forcing him to double over, then it grabbed hold of him and pulled its right arm back. A small rocket booster fired up in its right elbow and after taking a second to charge the goat delivered a full rocket punch to Neji's face. The result was pretty much what you'd expect. Neji was sent flying away down the street. He skidded on the dirt twice before finally coming to a stop some distance away.

While the genin continued to fight with the goat Hunter calmly walked into the nearby Ichiraku's Ramen. Ayame, her father and a few customers were taking shelter inside. When they first saw Hunter their first reaction was to hide, except for Ayame who instinctively grabbed a frying pan. Hunter ignored them all and walked right up to the bar and said "I'd like one miso ramen to go please. Don't hold on the spice."

After quietly arguing on whether or not to serve him Teuchi made Hunter his order and he went back outside. He stopped for a moment to avoid Rock Lee, who'd been thrown backwards by the goat, then he just found a good spot and stood, watching the fight and eating his ramen.

Then some of the adults showed up, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Might Guy.

"Alright Hunter" Kakashi began "Now we...huh?" all four of them were stunned into silence by the sight before them. Their students, some of the most promising genin in the village were locking in some kind of losing battle with a shape shifting goat.

"No, your eyes aren't deceiving you." said Hunter, reading the expressions on their faces. "They really are getting beaten by a goat."

"A...a goat..." was all Kurenai could muster.

Guy was the first to shake of his surprise. "Hunter! In the name of the Leaf Village I order you to-"

Hunter ignored him totally and focused on finishing his ramen.

"Are you even listening!" roared Guy.

Hunter gave him an indignant look "My mouth's full you twit!"

"Didn't think you'd have table manners." said Asuma.

Hunter drank the last of the ramen, then he threw the bowl away. "Shows just how little you know about me, doesn't it. Alright. Shall we dance?"

Asuma went first, striking at Hunter with his trench knives. Hunter easily dodged him but then that was the plan. Guy followed up Asuma's attack with a series of blows and kicks, while Kakashi charged up his chidori. One of the chidori's big downsides however is that it is highly noticeable. As soon as Kakashi launched his attack Hunter directed it away and instead of hitting Hunter he just took a big chunk out of the floor.

"This is fun!" said Hunter as he blocked a kick from Kurenai.

"Gah! How can you be enjoying this?" she asked as she avoided his lazy counterattack.

"You guys really need to learn to lighten up. Enjoy life while you've got it. Because..." he ducked under one of Guy's kicks "The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together the happier we'll be!"

"Oh no. Not again!" groaned Kurenai.

"The mooore we get together, together, together. The moooore we get together the happier we'll be!" Hunter was not just avoiding attacks now but dancing around them.

"For your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The mooore we get together the happier we'll be!" He caught a downwards chop from Guy, then he twisted his arm and spun him to the left, right into Kakashi. "Take it away goat!"

The goat had changed to blue streak mode and was using its high speed to outmanoeuvre the genin. "Ba Baaa ba ba babaaaba, babaaaba, babaaaba. Ba baaa ba ba babaaba ba Baabaa ba ba!" After jumping over Kiba it went straight for Neji who tried to defend using his Rotation. The goat ran at sonic speeds in the opposite direction to Neji's spin, cancelling it out, then it head butted him in the back.

"Ba ba ba, ba ba ba!"

"And my friends are your friends!"

"Ba baaa ba ba Babaaaba, ba baabaa ba baa!"

Both Hunter and the goat broke away from their separate groups of enemies and ran towards each other, the goat changing back into robo goat mode. "Two, four, six, eight, who do we app-re-ci-ate!" They were about to go past each other but at the last moment they liked arms and jumped, robo goats legs slammed into Kakashi while Hunter collided with Sasuke.

"The more we dance together, together" Hunter ducked under Neji's palm strike and blocked a punch from Ino "together. The more we dance together the happier we'll be. For your friends are my friends!" Lee tried to hit him with a Leaf Hurricane attack but Hunter caught his legs and threw him into Kiba.

At the same time the robo goat was behind Kakashi, wrapping its arms around his waist "Ba ba baa ba ba baaa!" Several small rockets under its little metal legs fired, flipping them both over and smacking Kakashi's head onto the ground.

"The more we dance together, the happier we'll be!" Hunter jammed out both his arms, striking both Lee and Sasuke as they jumped at him.

"This is just plain ridiculous!" said Asuma.

Kurenai jumped out of the way of the charging goat "How can we be losing to a GOAT!?"

"We won't be losing much longer!" announced Guy. The others looked up behind Hunter and the genin and saw the rest of the villages ninja rapidly approaching. The jonin body-flickered over to their students while Hunter and the goat pulled back. It was now Hunter and his summon Goat against pretty much every ninja in the village now.

"It's over Hunter, you're hopelessly outnumbered!" said Kakashi, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, give up now!" added Sakura.

"Please don't" said Anko, who had joined them from the ninja mob. "I _really_ want a chance to kill you myself."

"Got any ideas?" said Hunter in an aside to the robo-goat.

"Baa!" the goat shifted and changed again back into a normal goat, with one key exception. It was wearing a horned metal helmet on its face. "Baaa!"

"So now you're a...Dova-goat?"

The goat widened the stance of its front legs, like it was bracing itself. It craned back its head.

Hunter looked from left to right in confusing "Does anyone else hear that? Sounds like a male choir starting up?"

"FUS RO BA!" from the goats mouth came a huge wave of unrelenting force that blasted every ninja back, as well as everything that wasn't firmly nailed down. When the wave subsided most of the street was now perfectly clear apart from the very end where all the ninjas had been piled up, along with some potted plants, a few dazed household pets apparently someone had also left a pie cooling on a windowsill because it had landed on Kakashi's face.

Hunter and Dova-goat walked up to the mountain of groaning bodies and started to clamber up it, stepping on Saukra, Anko, Asuma and a few ANBU ninjas in the process. Once they were at the summit Hunter struck a heroic pose while the goat just sat down on its rump.

Hunter looked down at the civilian crowd that had started to gather, admiring his work. "Thank you Goat. This was a tone of fun."

"Baaa!"

Hunter chuckled "Hahaha! Yeah, whatever." The goat began to glow bright white as it turned back into a charm that Hunter picked up and stored in his sleeve with the others, then he jumped down off the ninja pile, the crowd parting as he walked away.

He'd just reached the edge of the crowd when three small someone's came tearing round the corner just ahead. Udon, Moegi and...

"Everyone!" yelled Konohamaru "You need to listen! There are these Ninja Spiders on the loose and they...huh? HUNTER!"

"Konohamaru. You're late."

The boy clenched his fists angrily. He was about to say something when Udon interrupted him.

"Um, Konohamaru?"

"What is...what the!?" that's when he noticed the other ninjas who were only now starting to disentangle themselves.

"W-what...just what's been going on here!?" he demanded.

Hunter shrugged "A goat did it."

All three children fell over backwards.

Hunter just smiled and shook his head as he carried on walking into a waiting dark portal. "Today was a good day."

_The Village Hidden in the Sound. Land of Sound._

"How long have they been in there?" asked Jirōbō.

"Better part of an hour now." muttered Kidōmaru.

The Sound Four, Orochimaru's personal bodyguards, were all assembled in one of the 'villages' dark corridors, outside the room where Kabuto had taken their master after he'd returned from wherever he'd been. Calling the Sound Village a village was not an accurate description. The whole place was a giant underground laboratory for Orochimaru's twisted experiments so as you can imagine there were few creature comforts, the lighting was dim at the best of times and the smells coming from some of the labs...well, it made eating dinner a challenge.

Orochimaru had been in a rage ever since he'd lost the use of his arms in the fight against the Third Hokage . Now that his attempt to restore his limbs had failed he was even worse, if that was possible.

"Fifty yen says he's already eaten Kabuto." said Tayuya, callously.

"You're on." said Sakon.

"I'll take that bet." said Kidōmaru.

Jirōbō let out a sigh "I can't believe you guys, someti-"

BOOM!

All four of them spun round in the direction of the explosion.

"That was the west gate." said Tayuya.

"You think Konoha found us?" wondered Sakon.

A terrified sound shinobi ran round the corner, being chased by a load of black and white lines that wrapped around his legs and mid section, dragging him kicking and screaming back out of view. The screaming abruptly ended.

"What was that?" asked Tayuya, trying to hide how much that freaked her out.

Someone else walked round the corner, someone they all recognised.

"Hmm. Hunter?" Kidōmaru seemed surprised "Ha. So you found us. You must be real stupid if you think you can take us on alone."

Hunter didn't say anything, he just kept walking straight towards them.

"Silent treatment huh?" said Tayuya "Alright, let's see if we can fix that!" she pulled a kunai out of her back pocket and threw it at Hunter's head. The knife sailed through them air...and passed right through him, impacting on the back wall.

Hunter had stopped moving now and was just looking at the four of them with unblinking eyes "Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

"Let me think about it." Sakon took up a mock thinking pose "OK, NO!"

The whole sound four burst out laughing. They stopped when they heard 'Hunter' laughing to. It was probably the creepiest laugh they'd ever heard, and bear in mind, these people work for Orochimaru. It was just so fake an unnatural, like the same sound repeated over and over again. That and it started and ended way too abruptly.

"What kind of freak is this." said Kidōmaru.

"Stand. Aside." Thorn repeated.

"What part of 'no' don't you get loser!" said Tayuya as she brought out her flute.

Five more sound ninjas appeared behind the Sound Four.

"Bout time you showed up." scolded Sakon. "Don't just stand there. Get him!"

Thorn raised on hand and pointed at the furthest sound ninja on the left. A long black a white line shot out, going right throw the man's head with a sickening crack. Thorn wound his end of the line around his arm.

"Get. Over. Here."

_Inside Orochimaru's private rooms._

Kabuto was standing just in front of the door, listening to the commotion outside.

"There must be at least six, seven enemy Jonin out there. We may want to consider retreating Lord Orochimaru."

The Snake Sanin himself was sitting in the middle of the room. He'd taken off his shirt so he could wrap most of his damaged upper body, useless arms and the left side of his face in bandages.

"We're not going anywhere." he hissed "Whoever it is. They've made a grave mistake.

Kabuto was about to protest when the door was shattered into splinters. Jirōbō shot into the room, landing unconscious on his back. Someone who Kabuto thought was Hunter walked in, stepping on Jirōbō without sparing the man so much as a thought. In his right hand he was holding a choking Tayuya by the throat, but he threw her aside. She crashed into one of the wall shelves and a glass jar fell down, that she instinctively caught. Inside the jar, suspended in liquid, was a single eye that turned to look at her. She gave a yelp then threw the jar across the room where it shattered.

Orochimaru managed a chuckle "Hmhmhm. Hunter...or..." he examined the intruder more carefully. "No. Not Hunter. You look like him, but you're someone else."

Thorn said Nothing, but he did take a few more steps towards Orochimaru. Kabuto attempted to grab hold of his arm but his hand passed right through.

Thorn extended a hand to the Snake Sanin and said "Curaga." There was a flash off green light as an ethereal ring of flowers appeared above Orochimaru. The rot that had been creeping up from his arms retreated, then his arms started to twitch. When the light faded Orochimaru lifted up both his arms and flexed his fingers a few times.

Kabuto looked stunned 'He fixed Lord Orochimaru's arm so easily. I've never seen a jutsu like that!'

The Snake just chuckled, then he burst into a full evil laugh. "HAHAHHMUAHAHAH! You lose again Sarutobi! Hahahaha!" once he'd calmed down he remembered his visitor who was still standing there silently. "I take it you want something in return."

"You have. Such small ambition."

Orochimaru's smile faltered. "And who are you to lecture me?"

"One who knows more. All you want are the secrets of this world. When you could have." Thorn created a ball of black energy that corseted with lightning in his hand. "The secrets of every world."

Orochimaru was completely captivated by the sphere "Such...power..."

Thorn closed his hand and the sphere vanished. "Interested?"

Orochimaru's face broke into one of his best evil grins. "Yes."

_Hours later_

Night had fallen and most of the village had settled down to sleep, apart from a few ninjas who were still on the lookout for Hunter. If they wanted to find him however, they were looking in all the wrong places. He was on top of the Hokage Mountain, looking down at the village. He'd been standing there just observing for hours now but people watching was effective at keeping boredom at bay.

He let out a long sigh "You can come out now man. I can hear you back there."

Someone body-flickered into view next to him.

Itachi Uchiha.

"I don't sense the fish stick. You're here on your own?" Hunter sounded surprised.

"Kisame doesn't know I'm here. Nor does anyone else for that matter." replied Itachi.

Itachi walked up to stand next to Hunter and stared down at the village with him. After a long silence he finally spoke. "You know. Don't you." he tapped the side of his head "I noticed you during our last fight. You can see it."

"Yep." was all Hunter could say. After another long silence Hunter finally plucked up the nerve to ask "So...what are you taking for it?"

"Nothing."

Hunter's head snapped round to look at Itachi "Nothing!? Seriously? That thing has to be the size of a two pence piece and you're not taking anything for it? No meds?"

"No."

"No pain killers?"

"None."

Hunter raised both his eyebrows "Damn. I knew you were a tough cookie but this is something else." Hunter looked back down at the village "I just don't get you. You wiped out your whole family. You act like an absolute prick. But I can tell you're not an evil person, or even a bad person. Why do I have this feeling that there's more going on than meets the eye."

Itachi's mouth twitched in what may have been a smile. "Those yellow eyes of yours do see a great deal, don't they."

"Yup. I can see everything going on in the Leaf. Sakura's asleep, dreaming about Sasuke. Lee is training by himself. Teuchi and Ayame are just closing up shop. Asuma and Kurenai are...hmm."

"Are what?" asked Itachi.

"Sorry man, you don't pay enough for that channel."

Itachi rolled his eyes "You're almost as bad as Jiriya. But...you are right. Destroying my clan was...not what I wanted. It was something I had to do. Things would have been worse otherwise."

Hunter fouled his arms and looked thoughtful "OK. But that still doesn't explain why you've got Sasuke convinced that you-...oh" it was like a light bulb had gone on in his brain. "You want him to hate you don't you." Itachi didn't respond so Hunter continued "This is all some kind of Karmic retribution plan of yours. You wipe out your clan, so you get your brother to kill you and you think that will what? Balance out the scales?"

"I don't need to explain my actions to you." snapped Itachi. "And you're hardly one to demand the truth from me. You haven't been honest since you got here."

"I don't know what you're talking about." said Hunter dismissively.

"Humph. You're not a shinobi, that's obvious. You're not a jinchuriki either. I'm starting to suspect that you're not human at all."

Hunter gave a disgruntled grunt and kicked the ground a few times. "Yeah. Alright. I'm not human. Happy?"

Itachi paused for a moment before answering "Vindicated, perhaps. If you're not human, then what are you?"

Hunter sifted uncomfortably "I'm a monster. I don't know how I wound up like this, maybe I was force to, maybe I chose it but...I don't think I can go back to what or who I was. Ever. And it's like I have this...gnawing feeling, this drive to kill people it sneaks up on me whenever I'm not looking. It's horrible. Have you ever lost control. I mean really lost control to the point where you don't even know what you're doing anymore?"

Itachi tilted his head slightly "You have trouble keeping yourself focused. Staying you. Easy. All you need is something else to focus on."

Hunter gave him an irritated look "Like what genius."

"Kings pawn to E Four."

Hunter nearly fell over "Y-you're kidding? We don't even have a board!"

"Too complicated for a monster." Itachi's half smile had returned.

"Son of a...Pawn to E Five."

"Pawn to F Four."

"Pawn takes Pawn. So, I've told you my secret, now it's your turn."

Itachi sighed and let his shoulders drop "You won't let this go will you? Bishop to C Four."

"No. And Queen to H Four, check."

"Aggressive. King to F One. Alright then. I suppose this started with the Nine Tails attack."

"Eck. That ball of fuzz again. He always seems to be in the bad stories. Pawn to B Five."

"Bishop takes Pawn. It's a...not widely, but a known fact that the Sharingan, my clans kekkei genaki, can control the Nine Tailed Fox."

"Knight to F Six. So why didn't one of you just order it to stop?"

"Orders from a man named Danzō." Hunter detected a flare of anger from Itachi despite him showing no outward signs. "He ordered my clan to purely protect the civilians. He thought that the temptation to control the Nine Tails was too great. Maybe he was right. Knight to F Three."

"Guy sounds like a total prick. You play to win, you don't keep your best weapons in reserve, no offense. Queen to H Six."

"None taken. Pawn to D Three. After the attack the finger of suspicion fell on the Uchiha clan. We were moved to a new clan compound outside of the main village and our actions were closely monitored. There had always been some who'd felt our clan was marginalised and now it was looking like that was the case."

"Knight to H five. This isn't going to end well is it?"

"No. Knight to H Four. The discontent grew and grew until our clans leaders, my father chief among them decided that a...change in village leadership was called for."

"A coup d'état. Queen to G Five."

Itachi's eyes became more distant as he sank into his memories "Yes. I was part of ANBU at the time so my father recruited me to spy on the rest of Konoha but..." Itachi paused, looking almost sad. "I lived through the Third Shinobi war Hunter. I saw my friends, some of them genin fresh out of the academy, no older than Sasuke is now, die. Blown up by traps or cut down by kunai and I couldn't save them. Afterwards I...I swore I'd do anything to keep the peace, to prevent another war. If my clan launched a coup, successful or not then Konoha would have been seen as weak and the other shinobi villages may well have attacked. It could have been a Fourth Shinobi War." There was another long pause. "Knight to F Five."

"So, you didn't go along with your dad's plans. Then what? Oh and, Pawn to C Six, watch your bishop."

"And you should watch your Knight. Pawn to G Four. I told Konoha's elders and the Third Hokage everything. Sarutobi wanted to talk things out, he always preferred diplomacy but Danzō. He had a more...final solution in mind."

Hunter tilted his head to one side as the full picture started to form. "He told you to kill them. Didn't he. Knight to F Six."

"He told me in private what might happen if the Uchiha went through with their plan. The risks of another war. He knew that I would do anything to stop that. That's when he made his 'suggestion'. I become the villain and wipe out my clan, except Sasuke. It prevented a war and kept the Uchiha name pure. Tower to G One."

"He told you to kill off you clan and you were ok with that?"

"It wasn't an easy decision!" Itachi snapped "I had to weigh up the lives of my clan, my family against the hundreds who would have died in a civil war and the hundreds of thousands who might have died in a World War!"

Hunter held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry. Pawn takes Bishop."

"Pawn to H four. Of course I made my choice and...well I don't need to tell you the result. My clan died. I was branded a traitor and in return I had the knowledge that my little brother was safe and the Uchiha name still had its honour."

"Seems like a bad deal to me. Queen to G Six."

"Pawn to H Five. It was a sacrifice on my part for the greater good."

"Greater good? Somewhere in a parallel world a race called the Tau are all face palming. Queen to G five."

"Well, what have you ever sacrificed in your life Hunter? Queen to F Three."

"Mmm, trying to trap my Queen, eh? Knight to G Eight. And Incidentally, what I've sacrificed." Hunter held up his right arm which slowly turned into a Heartless claw. "Everything. Now, don't kill me for this one, but why spare Sasuke if you'd already killed off everyone else?"

"Bishop takes Pawn. Threatens Queen. Two reasons. First off he knew nothing of the plot and secondly, despite what I say and do, he's my brother and I love him. I always will. I'm...not sure you'd understand."

"Oh I do." Hunter's eyes started to glow as he stared at a line coming from Itachi's Heart, leading all the way down to the village to another. "Believe me I do. Queen to F Six."

"Knight to C Three. You know your eyes look creepy when they do that. And you've overdeveloped your Queen."

"That's rich coming from you. That stare of yours is so intense it's a wonder people don't turn to stone when you look at them! Plus you're still a Bishop down mister, so don't get cocky. Bishop to C Five."

"Knight to D Five. Alright, that's what you are, but not why you're here." said Itachi.

"Queen takes Pawn at B Two. Well, the ...process, that made me like this also blitzed my memories. I can't remember anything that happened from more than a month ago."

"Memory loss. That's original. Bishop to D Six." Somehow Itachi managed to be sarcastic without changing his tone of voice.

"Hey, have you ever woke up and not known who you are?"

Itachi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ok stupid question. Now...Queen takes Tower. Are you even trying?"

"King to E Two."

"Alright, Knight takes Tower. Your _last_ Tower."

"Pawn to E Five."

"Seriously? I've got my whole army bearing down on your King and you're moving a Pawn?"

"Think about it Hunter. Now, you were saying."

"Hmm, oh right. Anyway, so I wake up with no clue who I am, what I am and the first people I meet are this warrior guy named Riku, a sweet little girl called Naminé and DiZ. He's sort of like that Danzō guy you mentioned. Knight to A Six."

"Knight takes Pawn at G Seven. Check. Let me guess. He told you that if you did a job for him he'd help you..."

"...find my way home." Hunter finished Itachi's sentence for him. "King to D Eight."

"And you think you can trust him? Queen to F Six. Check."

"No. But there's no one else for me to turn to so if he says he can help then like it or not I have to believe him. Now what are you doing man!? My Knight takes your Queen. You have no Towers, and only one Bishop. Too bad you spent all your time moving that Pawn to..." Hunter's victorious expression dropped "You sneaky little..."

"Bishop to E Seven. Checkmate."

Hunter crossed his arms angrily "Grrr. Good game ya ice blooded Vulcan."

"You too." Itachi managed a full smile this time. "Hunter. If you had the chance to be human again, would you take it?"

Itachi's question caught him off guard but it was a good one. After all this, could he go back to normal, even if he had the chance? Hunter created a small dark wisp around his right arm and studied it intently. "No. Sure I miss being able to taste food, and feel and sleep but all this power though. I don't think I could give it up."

"You really couldn't let it go?"

Hunter took up a heroic pose "With great power comes great responsibility! I've got a job to do, and I'm gunna see it through!" after this 'inspiring' little speech Hunter seemed to space out as he focused on a spot off in the distance. "Grrr. Those two again." He looked apologetically at Itachi. "Sorry, I have to deal with this. Ya know, it was actually nice to just talk to someone for once."

Itachi managed a small smile of his own "Yes, I suppose. Just one thing." he suddenly became serious again "Don't tell Sasuke about this." then his body broke up into a flock of crows that flew away.

"Show off!" said Hunter as he leapt off the mountain and fell into a waiting black portal.

The exit portal appealed horizontally a few meters above the ground. He shot out of it and face planted into the dirt with a loud thud, startling the two nearby ninjas. In a split second he was back on his feet, acting like he'd planned that disaster of an entrance.

"Well well, if it isn't Kitty Fast Paws and Mohamed A-Bee."

Yugito and Killer Bee both looked stunned, they hadn't expected Hunter to find them so quickly.

"Now's our chance Bee." said Yugtio as she was enveloped by red chakra. "We hit him with everything we've got!"

Bee settled into his usual cocky smile "Oh yeah. My true mode as the Eight Tails abode is about to unfold! WEEEEE!"

The change was very rapid. In just a few seconds Yugito had become a massive two tailed cat that seemed to be made from blue fire. Much of the giant felines 'skin' was covered in black glyph-like shapes that remained solid despite the shifting flames beneath.

Killer Bee's tailed beast mode was by far the more unusual of the two. It had the torso and arms of a man but the head of a bull, minus the left horn that had been partially sheered off. The lower half was made of eight octopus tentacles that waved around hypnotically.

"**My true form is a glorious Longhorn! WEEEE!**"

"Ah snap." Hunter jumped high up into the air, just missing the massive tentacle that smashed into the ground where he'd been standing. Mid flight however he was attacked by the Two Tails who tried to swallow him whole. Hunter ended up trapped between the cat's teeth, using all his strength to keep its jaws from closing on him.

"Blast, blast, blast SOOODDD!" the building pressure eventually forced Hunter out from between Matatabi's teeth and he crashed into the ground, gouging a long rift into the dirt before coming to a stop. "Ouch."

'You don't look so frightening anymore.' said Yugito from inside Matatabi's mind as she and The Eight Tails closed in.

**"Careful kitten. He's still dangerous. We need to end this now!" ** warned Matatabi.

'Alright. Just one question then Hunter and I know you can hear me, even in here. So who was the girl?'

Hunter blinked a few times 'They haven't just turned into their monsters, they've traded places with them.' "You'll have to be a bit more specific lady."

'Don't play stupid with me. We got a report saying that you were sighted after the Third Hokage's death with a young blond girl. Another 'Heartless' like you?'

Hunter got back up, brushing off some dirt. "You _really _don't want to go there."

'I'll take that as a yes.'

**"If there is another Dark One, we'll have to destroy her too." **that was probably the single dumbest thing Matatabi could have said.

Hunter's reaction was instant. His eyes became glowing yellow and a thick black aura sprung up around his body.

**"I think you made him mad."** said Eight-o, stating the obvious.

'Yo, Our enemies blood lust is fully pumpin'. Time to blast him before he can give us a thumpin'!' rapped Bee.

Yugito nodded. 'Right. Time for a Tailed Beast Ball.'

Both Matatabi and Eight-o opened their mouths, generating large balls of dense dark coloured chakra**.**

Hunter let a charm drop out of his sleeve, the same one he'd used to summon Zilla before.

"You two have crossed the line with me." said Hunter even as his mouth split into a jagged line. Three spines emerged from his back, followed by his spiked tail, then his left arm changed completely into a Heartless claw form. A powerful dark surge travelled down his changed arm and into the summoning charm, as it began to glow with a black and purple light. **"Dark Summoning!"**

**"Fire!"**

Matatabi and the Eight Tails fired their Beast Bombs at the same time, the resulting blast was tremendous, a fire ball bigger than the two tailed beasts put together that obliterated all it touched. Anything that wasn't disintegrated was blown away by the resulting gale force winds leaving a large area of forest devoid of trees.

"**Is he gone?" **asked a hopeful Matatabi.

**"Can't see a thing through this smoke."** said Eight-o.

'And I can't sense any chakra, so it looks like we...hmm what rhyms with Chakra.' thought Bee.

**"Bee! Can you take your mind off rapping for one..."** the Eight Tails squinted into the clearing smoke.

"**Wait, I think I can see..."**

That was as far as he got.

The smoke finally dissipated. Hunter's summon had worked, there was now what looked like a massive ball in front of them. There was a huge gap in the middle and close to the top was a large horn, Hunter was standing on top of it at the base. Whatever this summon was it was huge, larger than even the Nine Tails but it didn't look very mobile and it had no visible arms or legs for that matter.

'W-what is that?' asked Yugito.

**"How should I kn-huh, what the!?"** Matatabi stumbled back in surprise as the strange creature started to change, the two half's of the massive ball started coming apart the action causing the ground to tremble.

'W-wait' Yugito's eyes widened as she realised 'th-those are...wings!?'

She was right, the creature in front of them had materialised curled up into a ball, and now it was merely standing up. Both Tailed Beasts and jinchuriki could do nothing but stare in slack jawed awe as the monster before them was revealed.

Both Matatabi and Eight-o were roughly one hundred meters tall. This thing dwarfed them both. It was a massive, demonic creature with powerful arms that ended in three vicious looking claws, building sized legs that lead to three-clawed feet. Its wings were absolutely gigantic, its wingspan was easily twice the size of its main body. A single blade like horn sprouted from atop its bone crested head. To complete the picture it had glowing red eyes and a wide mouth containing two rows of razor sharp teeth.

Hunter was still standing on the behemoths head, looking down at the two Tailed Beasts.

**"You don't look so frightening anymore!" ** he yelled, parroting Yugito's earlier statement.

"**W-what...what is that thing?!" **stammered Eight-o.

Hunter gave a laugh that was more like a growl **"Hahah! You can't tell?! It's the Destroyah!"**

**"REEEEAARRGGGHHHH!"**

* * *

Cliff hanger ending...Dun Dun DUNNNN!

In case you're wondering the Goat is the Goat from Goat Simulator. Stupid I know but I think it's funny.

I'd like to thank Shadow clone 3333 for the Dark Summon idea. Or was it Shaodwclone 4444...Shadow cl- Oh I don't know which one. They're clones! They're all identical!

Next time, will Hunter come to his senses before it's too late? Will the Destroyah make mince out of Bee and Yugito? Can the ninja world survive a Deadly Alliance between Orochimaru and Twilight Thorn? You'll just have to wait and see.


	15. Chapter 14

Welcome to chapter fourteen. Wow, it seems like a long time ago when I started this story and it is without doubt my favorite to write.

A reply to superpeirce: Sora may or may not appear later, I haven't decided. No, there will most likely not be a squeal and Thorn will have _many_ more data summons, big and small.

Now sit back. Relax and enjoy.

* * *

KAABOOOMM!

The blast was loud enough to wake the whole village. The shinobi were the first up. After the recent Sand-Sound attack they were on high alert and in moments most of them were at the walls, ready to repel any invaders. They all froze when they saw just what they were up against.

Several miles away was a monster the likes of which they'd never seen. A lot of them had been there the day the Nine Tails attacked and this thing was bigger than even the Demon Fox and it looked like something out of a nightmare. The loud noise had been caused by the creature smashing one of is great claws into the ground, creating a shock wave that some had mistaken for a earthquake.

"What on earth is that?" asked Kakashi who, along with Asuma, Kurani and Guy was standing atop the village wall staring at the beast.

Then the monster pulled back, flinging something across the forest. That something then got back up and charged at the monster. Only then did people start to recognise the smaller creature.

"That...that's the Eight tails!" said Kurenai.

"There's another! The Two Tails!" added Guy.

Kakashi had thought things couldn't get any stranger. He was wrong.

_Over in the battle_

"DIIEEEEGRAARRHGGH!"

"**Watch out!"** warned Matatabi as Destroyah's tail swung round at Eight-o and she herself had to dodge a dark bolt barrage from Hunter.

_'Nice going Matatabi!' _ said Yugito from inside the Tailed Beast's mind _'The last time we got him angry he nearly killed us, now he may finish the job!'_

"**Not helping Kitten!"** the giant cat fired back.

Eight-o was having more trouble fighting than Matatabi was. Destroyah was massive and an absolute powerhouse, every blow from it felt like a mountain was being dropped on him. Matatabi was built around speed so dodging wasn't much of a problem for her but he wasn't as fast or nimble, only just staying ahead of the beast.

**"This is bad!" **said the Eight Tails as it barely dodged another claw swipe. Seeing an opening Eight-o opened his mouth and fired a Beast Ball at the Destroyah that hit it square in the face. It s head twitched slightly from the impact but other than that it was just angrier now.

"**RRRAAGHHH!"**

**"This is really bad!"** he repeated.

_'The situation is grim, we're in trouble no doubt' _rapped Bee, even as Eight-o inwardly groaned from having to listen to more of his hosts rapping. _'And while I'd hate to add to it, where's Hunter in this bout?'_

Matatabi looked up at the Destroyah's head. Sure enough, Hunter wasn't there anymore.

**"Where did he-ghha!"**

Hunter's chains burst out of the ground, becoming longer than they possibly should have been and wrapping around the Two Tails front legs and waist. As she struggled to break free Hunter rose up out from the ground shaking off lose dirt, holding the end of both chains to keep her in place.

"No one threatens Naminé!" he said in a voice that wasn't entirely his own "Destroyah! SMASH!"

The evil Kaiju smacked Eight-o aside, pulled back one of its massive claws and brought it crashing down onto the Two Tails. The cat was crushed into the ground, any trees nearby were uprooted and thrown away by the hurricane force winds that the blow caused. When the dust and dirt cleared the Tailed Beast was gone, replaced by a wounded Yugito who just had enough time to run out from between Destroyah's claws before they closed together.

Destroyah was about to attack again when it was blindsided by Eight-o. As the two monsters brawled Hunter's chains retracted to a more normal length as he closed in on Yugito.

"You've made your last mistake. Both of you! Grrrrrrr!"

Yugito dodged left to avoid Hunter's claw strike but he kept following her, always just a second behind. _'Matatabi, I really could use some chakra right about now!'_

_**'I need a minute to recharge Kitten, getting hit buy that thing took a lot out of me!'**_

_'Oh, fantastic!'_

Yugtio used some of her remaining chakra to sharpen her nails to the point where they could slice through flesh, then she went on the offensive, slashing at Hunter. He dodged to the right.

And another him split off to the left.

"W-what!?" Yugito's eyes went wide. In addition to Hunter there was now a red coloured version of him standing next to himself.

Both Hunter's looked at each other and smiled in a way that made her blood run cold.

"Two of a kind." said the original.

"Much of a mind." said the clone.

They both tilted back their heads and let lose an earth shaking roar.

While this was going on the Eight Tails was still locked in a losing duel with the Destroyah. He was about to blast the monster with a close range Tailed Beast Ball when crackling energy started to play around Destroyah's horn. Before the Eight Tails knew what was going on the beast slammed its head forwards and down, slashing through his left shoulder. As the Eight tails reeled back Destroyah opened its mouth and blasted him in the chest with its micro-oxygen ray sending the Tailed Beast flying backwards until it slammed into a hill with a massive crash.

**"Owwww!" ** Eight-o groaned as he tried to get back up but before he could so much as lean up he was blasted by another point blank micro-oxygen ray. When the beam finally stopped the Eight Tails was gone, replaced by a battered and bruised Killer Bee, who was groggily getting to his feet.

"Arrrr. Damn that hurt. Whoa!" Bee just got out of the way in time to avoid Destroyah's claws which nearly crushed him.

'_Eight-o? Gyūki!? You in there? Damn, he's out cold. This can't get much worse.'_ that was when Bee found Yugito and saw the two Hunters "Ahh crap."

The Red Hunter saw him first and charged right at him. Bee dodged to the left and quick as a flash he brought out his seven long thin blades which he gripped in the joints of his arms, his right leg, his stomach, the side of his head and his mouth.

The Red Hunter stopped in his tracks and gave him a sideways look "Ok, there's no way you can fight like-Waow!"

Apparently Bee could fight with all those blades. His overall style was somewhere between acrobatics and a hip-hop dance, all done at such a high speed that Red Hunter was forced back.

_**'Hmmmm...Bee?'**_

_'Eight-o! Good to know you're all right, now let's hit this fool with all our might!'_

Bee launched a kick at Hunter that was just a cover for throwing the blade held in his leg into the air where it was caught by one of Gyūki's tentacles that had sprouted from Bee's back. The Tendril then drove the blade down at Hunter, infusing it with lightning chakra casing it to crackle with energy. Red Hunter raised his hand defensively and the blade went right through his palm. At first bee was happy with the result, then he noticed that Red Hunter was smiling too. The clone closed his fingers around the blade and spun a full three sixty degrees before letting go and sending Bee flying. Fortunate Bee was a skilled acrobat and was able to turn his fall into a spinning attack that forced the original Hunter away from Yugito. The two jinchuriki were now side by side facing opposite directions with Bee looking at Red Hunter and Yugtio focused on the original.

"This isn't going well for us Bee." said Yugito.

"Two Hunters have doubled the pain. Time to book, ditch this crazy train!"

_**'Tactical retreat. Sounds good to me.' **_ added Matatabi.

"Ok, we pull back an-wait!" Yugtio saw that Hunter was charging up for another attack, creating a ball of dark energy in his hand. Behind her the Red Hunter was doing the same thing. Then the two of them ran at the Jinichuriki.

"Move!" yelled Yugito.

She and bee jumped out of the way. Time seemed to slow down. As Yugtio watched the Hunter's didn't try and change course to intercept them, they just carried on towards...each other.

'They weren't aiming at us!' she realised all too late.

"Now!" said both Hunter's together. "Supernova: Dying Stars Collide!"

All Yugito saw was a blinding flash of light then she and Bee were blown back as a massive explosion wracked the area. When they both got back up they found that a large circular smoking crater had been added to the devastation. The brief hope that Hunter had destroyed himself was dashed when he and his Red clone walked up out of the crater, both sporting predatory grins. This got even worse when the Destroyah showed up again, lowering its body so that its face was right behind the Hunters.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." the Original Hunter, who was on the right, gave a creepy laugh as his other arm morphed into a Heartless claw and three black and purple spines grew out of his back. "Destroyah..." he raised his right claw and pointed at the Jinchuriki "Obliterate!"

The Destroyah opened its mouth and a faint glow began to build somewhere in the back of its maw as it charged up its micro-oxygen ray.

"Are you crazy you'll...you'll *cough* *cough* what...I-I can't *cough*" what Yugito was about to say was lost when she and Bee started coughing as though they were having trouble breathing.

The Original Hunter laughed again "Destroyah's micro-oxygen ray eats up oxygen and turns it into carbon dioxide. Bet you never thought you'd run out of air in the middle of a forest!"

_**'Well then why aren't you choking?!' **_asked Matatabi, hoping she could by more time to think of a way out of this.

"I don't breath." he turned to look at Destroyah "Blast 'em!"

The glow emanating from Destroyah's mouth grew brighter. Yugito shut her eyes, expecting the fatal blast any second. Instead she felt herself being pulled violently to one side. Her eyes snapped open just in time to see Destroyah's mirco-oxygen ray shooting by.

'He missed?' was her first thought, then she realised that she'd been pulled out of the line of fire. That was also when she felt the hand on her shoulder. She looked up expecting to see Killer Bee but was surprised when she saw Red Hunter instead. He'd pulled them both out of harm's way.

"Hay, that's enough!" the clone barked at his original.

"What are you doing?" asked Hunter, cocking his head to one side.

"Me!? You tried to kill these two and you're asking what _I'm _doing!?"

"No one threatens Naminé. NO ONE!" screamed Hunter as his black aura grew more violent. Suddenly he shot forwards, pulling back his left claw to slash at Bee but before he could deliver the fatal blow his arm was caught by his red clone

"Calm DOWN!" he yelled, then he punched him in the face. Hunter staggered back, a spider web of cracks appearing on his left cheek. "Get a grip! What would Naminé say if she could see you like this?"

Hunter gave another angry growl but he didn't attack. After a few tense seconds of staring at his clone the spines on his back retracted and his right arm changed back to normal. He looked left and right surveying the destruction around him "I...really could have handled this better."

The clone raised an eyebrow "Ya think?"

There was a loud thud as Destroyah's foot came down right next to them. Apparently the creature had gotten board and was now eyeing up the Leaf Village off in the distance.

"We might want to think about stopping him." suggested Hunter.

"That's the smartest thing you've said all day."

The two Hunters shot off into the forest, only barely keeping up with Destroyah's massive strides.

"We have a plan?" asked Red.

"We don't have to take him down, just distract him long enough for his time to run out."

Destroyah's foot came down just in front of them and the two had to peel off to either side to avoid it before coming back together again on the other side.

"And how long should that take!?"

" 'Bout a minute. I think."

"Oh that's encouraging!" the two separated again to avoid Destroyah's leg. "Ok. I'll get his legs, you bloody his nose!"

Hunter nodded and changed direction, heading for Destroyah's right leg while Red Hunter jumped up on to the left leg, where he jammed one of his hooks into the beasts flesh then he began running round in a circle about Destroyah's legs, wrapping a chain around them. As the monster opened its mouth preparing to blast the Leaf with its deadly micro-oxygen it suddenly tripped and fell to its knees. At the same time Hunter had reached Destroyah's chest and as the creature fell he jumped, launching himself into the air so that he was level with its face.

"Eat this scaly! Black Rasengan!" Hunter shot towards Destroyah's face, pulling back his arm and creating a dark bolt in his palm. Hunter slammed the bolt into the space between Destroyah's left eye and its nose.

Nothing happened for a moment, then Destroyah's eye moved to look at Hunter. He stared at the massive unblinking red eye for a moment, then it focused angrily at him.

"Ut-oh."

**"GRRRRAHAHHHH!"**

One of Destroyah's pincer like claws rose up but he was gone before it could close on him. Hunter was now back on the ground, counting down the seconds until the evil summon ran out of time and vanished.

"Seven. Six. Five."

Destroyah looked down at him with its bright red eyes.

"Four. Three."

It opened its claw and thrust its arm down towards him.

"Two. One!"

WHAMMM!

Destroyah's claw smashed into Hunter with the force of a collapsing building. Just as it opened its mouth to roar in triumph it's body began to glow and changed back into a charm. In moments the monster was gone, the only evidence that it had even existed was the destruction left in its wake. In the large creature made by its final blow Hunter lay on his back, looking at the stars.

"Ouuucchh." he groaned. He looked to his left and saw his doppelganger standing over him, looking smug. "I...may have gotten the count...a little off."

"No, ya don't say." Red Hunter reached down and help his original up. After shaking off some lose dirt he looked around for any sign of Yugito or Killer Bee but the two jinchuriki had vanished.

"Looks like Tweedle Dee and Dumb have both scarpered."

"Well you did beat the crap out of 'em and set a huge monster on them so..."

"Yeah, yeah. I get the point. I'm not going to have to put up with you forever now am I?"

Red Hunter smiled and walked into Hunter, disappearing back into his original. He stood there for a moment, unsure what to say then he just shrugged and walked off into the forest. Naruto would be back at the village tomorrow and that meant the Nobodies would be active in the Leaf again. He had a lot of planning to do.

_The Land of Sound. Orochimaru's hidden base._

CLUNK!

"Oops." said Jūgo unconvincingly as he dropped the large whatever-it-was that Thorn had brought with him, nearly crushing Kidōmaru's foot in the process.

"Be careful with that."

"Aaah!" Both Jūgo and Kidōmaru nearly jumped out of their skins. Neither had heard Thorn enter the room behind them.

"Ah. There you are." Kabuto, Tayuya and Sakon appeared in the doorway and entered the room. "I trust everything is going smoothly?" continued Kabuto.

"Well...this thing's a lot heavier than it looks!" insisted Kidōmaru.

"It is heavy." said Thorn. "It was also difficult to acquire. Do not drop it again."

"Who died and made you the boss?" asked Tayua venomously. Like the rest of the Sound Four she didn't like Thorn in the slightest but he'd managed to get in good with Orochimaru so they had to tolerate him.

"Orochimaru made me the boss. And several people died. Or did you forget?"

Tayua made a face but she said nothing.

Jūgo and Kidōmaru got back to work moving Thorn's 'acquisition'. It was cylindrical and made of metal but anything else about it was obscured by a fabric dust cover. Eventually the two managed to haul it up to the back wall of the room and stand it on its end. The room itself was one of the many experiment labs so aside from the cylinder there were two slabs of stone that served as examination tables and just about every piece of medical equipment ever invented plus several that had been designed exclusively by Orochimaru.

"So adding DNA from this ...creature will improve our forces?" asked Kabuto.

Now the Sound Four were curious, and annoyed that they'd apparently been left in the dark.

Thorn walked up to the cylinder "Yes. At least a one hundred percent increase. In the survivors." He grabbed hold of the cover and pulled it away.

Everyone stared open mouthed at the contents of the cylinder except Thorn who was about as capable of emotion as a teaspoon.

The ends and the back of the cylinder were metal but the front was made of glass. Inside, suspended in a clear water-like liquid was the body of something that looked vaguely like a female human. Of course there was no mistaking it for a real human it was clearly something else all together and it had seen better days. It had no visible arms, pale greyish white skin and long white hair that floated eerily in the liquid. On its head was some kind of metal helmet that only covered the top portion of its head, there was a bronze plate on the front of the device but none of them could read what it said.

Sakon was not liking where this was all going "Y-you're going to put DNA from _that _into _us_!"

Thorn turned to face him "No. I'm going to give you all something much more dangerous. Later."

"Where the heck did you even find this thing?" asked Kidōmaru who was still staring at the thing in the tank.

"It looks like an alien." muttered Jūgo.

The rest of the Sound Four burst out laughing.

"Oh an alien. Someone's been reading too many children's comics!" mocked Tayua.

"That's exactly what she is." said Thorn.

Everyone stopped laughing.

"I found her in another world. Like I have all my...resources."

"This is all getting too weird for me." said Sakon. Some of the others nodded in agreement.

"She's not the strangest thing I've found. The last world had an evil unicorn."

Everyone gave him a deadpan look.

"Seriously?" asked Tayua.

"She had an excellent singing voice." Thorn turned and started working on some machinery over on the far wall, leaving everyone else staring dumbly after him. "This day. Is going to be perfect." he half sang in his emotionless voice.

"What a creep." said Tayua quietly. She and the rest of the Sound Four turned back to look at the alien thing.

"Was erm...was she- it smiling before?" asked Sakon.

They edged closer and saw there was indeed a ghost of a smile on the things lips.

"Thorn. This thing is dead, right?" asked Kidōmaru.

The only response he got was a cold "Depends how you define 'dead'."

When the Sound Four turned back to the tank. And they all let out startled yelps. The alien creature had definitely moved, she was now much closer to the glass than she had been and her smile had grown wider.

"If you want to stay on her good side. I'd recommend using her name." said Thorn.

"O-okay...What's her name?" stammered Tayua without taker her eyes off the creature.

"Jenova."

_Back in the Hidden Leaf_

Moring was settling in and things in the village were tense. After last night's monster brawl the whole village was on full Hunter Alert (yes, they now have an entire alert system purely for Hunter). Most of the shops were closed, people had hammered large pieces of crooked wood over their windows and doors and the only people out of the streets were patrolling shinobi or the few brave civilians who wanted front row seats next time Hunter appeared.

Oddly enough Hunter had found that he now had a near mythic status among the civilian population of the Leaf. They'd only heard second hand accounts of what he'd done in the sand-sound invasion and the story had only gotten more 'embellished' each time someone told it. According to the latest version Hunter was a cold and merciless warlord who'd slaughtered the Sand and sound ninjas single handed, ripped off Orochimaru's arms, stolen the hearts of Kurenai, Anko and Yūago, that he now lived in a mountain somewhere on top a mound of bones and that he used the Sand Jinchuriki's skull as a gravy pot.

'They make me sound like a super emo combo of Sasuke and Lord Sauron.' he thought as he finished wiring up the detonator box. He'd spent the rest of last night getting everything set up and now his latest plan of action was all ready.

"Fire in the hole!" he pushed down and all hell broke loose.

Late last night Hunter had broken into the Leafs supply of fireworks and he'd strategically place them all around the village. Of course he'd made one major modification. He'd taken out most of the gunpowder and replaced it with paint!

In a matter of moments he'd painted the whole town red. And blue. And orange. And...well, just about every colour there is.

In the middle of all this madness the Leaf Genin (minus Naruto who still hadn't gotten back yet) had assembled in the largest open area they could find that hadn't been given a new coat of paint yet.

"This is Hunters doing." said Neji, stating the obvious. His regular looks had been altered slightly by the massive purple splodge that now covered his left arm and part of his neck.

No one else had fared much better. Choji, Shikamaru and Kiba had all been eating together when this had all started and they'd all been caught in the first blasts. They looked like a bunch of pre-schoolers had taken a paint set to them. Shino was now mostly aquamarine. Tenten had been hit by some red and blue and there was a patch of green on the left side of her hair. Lee had a blotch of pink covering his chest and Hinata looked like she'd been dipped in blue. Sakura had only gotten a few flecks but she was still freaking out, claiming that she'd 'only just washed this dress yesterday!'.

The only two who had avoided the paint entirely were Ino and Sasuke and the blond was using this as a way to try and get closer to her crush.

"Wow Sasuke. You didn't even get a single drop of paint on you! But hey, you are the best ninja in the village after all." Sasuke simply gave a 'humph' in response while everyone else just rolled their eyes. "Of course, being an above average ninja myself I didn't get any paint on me either. Unlike Billboard Brow over there!"

Sakura gave Ino a look that could kill "Shut it Ino-Pig! You probably just changed into a clean outfit before you came here didn't you!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that your only second rate!"

"Pig!"

"Billboard-brow!"

"Erm, guys." everyone turned to look at Tenten. She was staring at something at the other end of the street behind them and from the look on her face they could guess what it was.

"Hunter's behind us. Isn't he?" asked Shikamaru.

Tenten nodded slowly.

As one the group spun round to face him.

Hunter was indeed a few yards away from them at the other end of the street. That was the first thing that caught their attention. The second thing was what he was sitting on. At the climax of most village celebrations that involved fireworks the villagers always fired an especially large rocket to close the show. It was one of these very missiles that Hunter was sitting on. In one hand he held the rockets fuse and in the other, a lit torch.

"He's not." said Neji.

Hunter smiled and put the torch and fuse together.

"He is." said Shikamaru.

"RUN FOR IT!" yelled Choji.

The Genin turned and bolted just as the rocket fired up. Hunter leaned forwards so that he was now riding it like a motorbike then he shot off after them, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.

"Everyone against the walls!" ordered Sasuke. they all compiled, flattening themselves against the buildings. A second later Hunter shot past and down the street until he disappeared from view.

"That worked." Kiba almost sounded surprised.

"Of course it did. It was Sasuke's idea after all." said Sakura. Ino shot her an angry look for saying that before she could. "That was Hunter's dumbest plan yet." continued Sakura "What, did he really think he'd hit us with that rocket. Ha!"

There was a rumbling sound off in the distance and Hunter appeared again, still riding his rocket and heading back towards them.

"You just had to open your big mouth Sakura." despite the situation Ino couldn't keep the smug grin off her face.

"Shut up Ino-Pig. How was I sup-"

"Argue later, run now!" said Shikamaru who was already making a break for it. The rest of the genin followed his example as Hunter came closer. The group split up with everyone running off in separate directions, forcing Hunter to focus on only one of them.

And the one he chose was Choji.

Long distance running was not something Choji excelled at and soon the tip of the rocket was only centimetres from the Akamichi heirs backside.

"Run Forest, RUN!" Hunter yelled joyfully.

Running low on energy Choji jumped to the left and Hunter shot past down the street then off to the left, whooping and cheering as he went.

"I really hate that guy." muttered Choji as he got back up and dusted himself off.

"Hey! Choji!"

Hearing his name Choji looked up and saw Kiba and Ino up on the roof nearby.

"Come on fatso, we don't have all-day!" shouted Ino.

Instantly Choji's eyes turned into anime flames "I'm not fat! I'm just a little chubby!"

Ino laughed quietly to herself as Choji raced towards them "Works every time."

Once Choji had joined them all the genin were now assembled on one rooftop, all of them looking out in different directions for any sign of their pursuer.

"I don't hear anything." said Kiba.

"Where are all the jonin!?" demanded Tenten.

"They'll be here." said Neji. "Hunter's not exactly subtle. It won't be long before-THERE!"

Everyone spun round. Hunter's rocket suddenly varied up from the street to roof level and corkscrewed towards them. Once again the genin were on the run, leaping from roof to roof with Hunter closing in.

"Target acquired!" he yelled "Firing retro rockets!" he swung the torch round behind the rocket again, lighting the retro rockets, which were a bunch of smaller rockets duck taped to the main missile. The resulting speed boost sent him flying over the genins heads, close enough for them to feel the heat of the rockets as he passed.

"He over shot us!" said Lee as they all came skidding to a halt.

"No." said Sasuke as he watched Hunter's course "He wasn't aiming at us at all!"

As they followed Sasuke's gaze the other quickly figured out what was going on. There was just one building left that hadn't been painted yet. The Hokage Tower. And Hunter was heading straight for it. Seconds later the rocket smashed through an upper window and once inside it exploded. Paint burst out from every window and the chimney, coating the tower almost entirely. Hunter appeared from a dark portal on the towers roof, observing his work.

"Not bad right!?" he proclaimed to the genin. "I got the whole village in one go!"

"Not the _whole_ village!" yelled Ino. "You missed me and Sasuke."

Hunter smiled down at her, then he pointed to his back.

Ino wondered what he meant for a moment, then she felt it. There was something on her back. She looked over her shoulder and saw a small firework taped to her. Hunter must have put it there when he flew past, she just hadn't noticed until now. The fuse ran out.

All she managed was a quiet "Oh." before it went off, coating her, Sasuke and some of the others in bright green paint.

Hunter smirked and casually jumped off the tower, landing at the base.

"Y-you...YOU!" Ino was absolutely furious without thinking she jumped down from the roof and pointed an accusatory finger at Hunter. "That is IT! You ruined my dress you psychotic, soulless, flashlight-eyed jerk!"

"Shouldn't we get out of here?" asked Choji, who was still up on the roof with the others.

"We can't just leave Ino to fight him alone." said Tenten as she jumped down to stand with her friend. One by one the other genin followed, even Sakura (albeit reluctantly) until only Shikamaru was left. He gave a tired sigh and muttered "What a drag." before following the others. The genin slowly started fanning out, encircling Hunter who just stood his ground, smiling at them confidently.

"Do we have a plan?" asked Lee.

"Keep him occupied until the Jonin arrive." said Neji.

Hunter's chains appeared behind him, falling to the ground with a loud clang. "Bring it!"

The two sides charged forwards. Hunter ducked under a kick from Sasuke, turned away a blow from Lee and took a palm strike from Neji straight to the chest. When that did nothing he stamped on the Huyga prodigies foot then knocked him aside. Turning round he blocked another blow from Sasuke, then he heard someone off to his left yelling "Go get 'im Sasuke! You can do it!" He jammed out his arm, sending his chain out. Sakura gave a screech as it wrapped round her mid section.

"Get over here!"

Then she was roughly yanked forwards into the fray.

"No sidelining Sakura!" said Hunter as he aimed a lazy punch at her head that she easily avoided.

"Fang over fang!"

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Hunter leaned back, then ducked to avoid Lee, Kiba and Akamaru but while he was occupied Tenten slipped under his guard and slapped an exploding tag on him.

"Get clear!" she yelled.

The genin jumped back as the tag exploded, momentarily obscuring Hunter in smoke. Once that was gone however he was still standing and looking quite smug. "Those don't work on me."

"No." admitted Tenten. "But it made a wonderful signal."

Hunter sensed movement above him. He spun round just in time to catch a falling blade aimed at his head. Holding the other end was Yūago, the purple haired ANBU ninja. He couldn't see her face behind her porcelain cat mask but Hunter was starting to rely less on faces and more on Hearts to identify people now.

He smiled at her and said "Hey gorgeous." before pulling the sword out of her hands and using it to deflect a kunai another ANBU ninja had thrown at his back.

Two more ANBU ninjas appeared between Hunter and the Genin. "Good work." said the one on the left "Now fall back to a safe position. We'll deal with him."

The genin all nodded and were about to leave but their way was blocked by Hunter. "You aren't going anywhere." he slowly brought up the sword so it was horizontal before his chest "For now I am in-" he took a sudden step forwards, bringing the sword back so its hilt was by his head and the blade pointed at the genin. "SWORD AND SHIELD MODE!"

Rock Lee dashed forwards despite the warning of the others, leaping into the air aiming a punch at Hunter's head. "You don't have a shield!"

Hunter didn't try to defend himself and Lee's punch struck home. Nothing happened for a moment then Lee recoiled back clutching at his hand, obviously in pain.

Hunter's smile widened as he declared "My FACE is my SHIELD!" then he head butted Lee to the ground. "Ha!...snap. Incoming!" Hunter back flipped away just as Might Guy dropped out of the sky, smashing the ground where Hunter had just been.

"Hunter! Still as youthful as ever!" he declared with his trademark smile.

'Now if he's here that means...' Hunter heard a chirping sound behind him like a flock of birds. He spun on his heel and saw Kakashi running towards him, holding a chidori in his right hand. Instead of dodging Hunter rushed to meet him, dropping the sword and creating a dark bolt.

"Black Rasengan!"

The two attacks collided in a flash of electricity and dark power and after a moment's pause Kakashi was thrown backwards, holding his arm. Several of the older ninjas, including Guy, looked nervous now. They all knew that the Rasengan was the Fourth Hokage's jutsu so how could Hunter do it?

"H-how. How do you know the Rasengan!?" demanded Kakashi, giving voice to everyone's question.

Hunter merely shrugged his shoulders and said "I improvised."

Kakashi gave him an angry look. "It's over Hunter. Look around you."

Hunter did so even though it wasn't necessary. More ninjas had shown up, lining the roofs and the street some of whom he recognised including Anko and Ibiki to name a few.

"You're completely surrounded." continued Kakashi

"You're reign of terror is over brat." said Anko.

"Yeah. You've got the whole village against you now!" added Ino.

"Not the _whole _village." said Hunter. "You're one man down, in case you forgot."

"Actually, they're not!"

Everyone looked off to the right. Standing less than a yard away were three figures. Jiriya, Tsunade, Shizune and...

"Yeah, I'm back! Believe it!" Naruto.

"Is that Tsunade Senju?" asked Ibiki.

"Well I'll be. The kid actually did it." said an ANBU ninja.

Tsunade took a moment to survey the damage. From what little she'd seen so far the entire village, and most of its shinobi, had been covered in paint. "Well, this is almost impressive."

"Almost? I think you're missing the point." said Hunter. "The paint wasn't the plan. The plan was to get all of you here. Specifically YOU!" he pointed at Naruto.

"Erm...me?" Naruto looked confused.

"Yes. You've all forgotten one very important fact about me. The first trick I ever pulled on you."

Kakashi figured out what was going on first. "Everyone get clear of the-!"

"STOPRA!"

Too late. With everyone immobilised Hunter simply walked right up to Naruto. The blonds face was frozen in that confused look. For an instant Hunter was tempted to draw on a moustache as he had done in the past but then he heard something behind him.

"Stop him before he-"

Stop had a limited area of effect, apparently some ninjas had been far enough away to avoid it.

"Oh well. Here we go." Hunter jammed his hand forwards and it phased right through Naruto's chest.

Close to a minute later the stop spell ended. The first thing everyone saw was that Hunter was not where he had been moments ago, then they saw Naruto. Confusion and panic momentarily set in (Hinata looked like she was going to faint on the spot) then Jiriya spoke up.

"Everyone calm down. Naruto's fine."

"Clam down!" yelled Sakura. "He has a hand right through Naruto's chest and...why are their eyes closed?"

"Hunter's done this before." the Toad Sanin explained. "It's some kind of merging. I don't know the particulars but I think it lets Hunter into Naruto's mind."

"How do we separate them?" asked Shino.

"Tried that before." said Anko, remembering the last time she'd witnessed this. "Didn't work to well for us."

Tsunade cracked her knuckles "You just didn't used enough force!"

She took two steps forward before Jiriya got in her way. "That's a bad idea. We have no idea what the effect of separating them like that could be. Naruto could be hurt, or worse."

Tsunade folded her arms and gave a grunt of annoyance.

"So we just do nothing!?" exclaimed Sakura.

"Unless you know a way to separate them safely, yes." Jiriya walked over to Hunter and Naruto and examined the spot where Hunter's hand phased into Naruto's body. "Hunter's had plenty of chances to kill us all. Whatever he's doing I have a feeling Naruto will be fine."

_Inside Naruto's mind._

"Mmmm...mmm...Huh?" Naruto groggily got to his feet. "Hey. What...what the!?" Now that he'd fully woken up he found that he was in his mindscape. He briefly wondered how he'd gotten there, then the answer presented itself "Hunter!"

Hunter was standing a little in front of Naruto, and beyond him was the massive cage containing the Nine Tailed Fox, however the massive daemon was not visible.

"Hey Naruto." said Hunter, cheerfully.

"Arrgghh! I can't believe you did this to me again!"

Hunter shrugged "Sorry but I need a word with the Great Orange Fur Ball." With that Hunter floated up to the huge metal gates, stopping when he was level with the paper seal that joined the two.

"What? How can you fly?" asked Naruto.

Hunter flipped so he was now upside down facing Naruto "This is all going on in your head mate. Anything's possible here." he rotated back to his upright position and took hold of one corner of the seal.

"No wait! You can't do that!" yelled Naruto.

Hunter ignored him and ripped the seal clean off. Instantly the gates opened and as Hunter descended back to the floor the Nine Tailed Fox began to emerge.

**"At last I am free!" **it declared.

"Not quite" said Hunter.

The Fox looked down at him, then it took several hurried steps back **"You!"**

"Yes. Me. Now, I suppose you're wondering why I've called you all here tonight." Hunter began pacing up and down "You have info about the Heartless. Or you think you do and I want to know what you know. So..." He turned and dramatically pointed at the great beast "..what does the Fox say!?"

The Fox gave an angry roar and launched itself forwards, opening its mouth to swallow Hunter whole. In a split second Hunter was replace by a large green box. The lid of said box flew off as a giant boxing glove on a spring shot out, punching the fox in the mouth.

"Ha! That's one point to me!" yelled Hunter who was now standing some ways off to the left.

Naruto looked from the box to him, not sure what was going on "What...how did...you were just..."

Hunter gave Naruto a look that was somewhere between pity and contempt "What part of 'this is all in your head' did you not get?"

The Fox made another lunge at Hunter but this time it was smacked aside by a massive log on a rope trap that appeared out of nowhere.

"If this is _my_ head how come you can do all this?" asked Naruto.

"Because we're linked genius. It's not just your mind anymore, it's mine too."

The Nine Tails had gotten back up and with a howl of rage it charged at Naruto.

"Remember! Mind over matter!" yelled Hunter.

Naruto pushed his fear down, closed his eyes and focused. As the Fox took another step forwards it's paw came down on something sharp and pointy. Then something shot up and smacked it in the face. It had stepped on a gigantic rake.

Hunter and Naruto both burst out laughing.

**"You brats! I am the Nine Tailed Fox! The mightiest of the Tailed Beasts! How dare you laugh at me!" **with its little rant over the Fox opened its mouth and began charging a Tailed Beast Ball attack.

"Time for a change of scenery." said Hunter.

Before the Fox's attack could finish charging it was hit by something rising up from below. **"What!?" **All around it the dark stone prison that had been Naruto's mindscape fell away to be replaced by a modern looking city. The scale seemed a little off however. The Fox had never seen buildings like this before but it got the impression that they should bee towering over it, instead they only just came up past it's waist. The Fox looked left and right for Naruto and hunter but it could neither see them or any people at all, the whole place was deserted.

**"Where are you you little rats." ** it mumbled as it prowled through the streets.

"Right behind you!"

The Fox spun round just as a large foot slammed into its face sending it sideways into a skyscraper. Quickly it pulled itself out of the rubble and got back into a fighting stance **"You'll pay for...huh!?"**

Standing in front of it was Naruto but he'd grown in size so he was now as large as the Fox.

"Hehe. This whole 'mind over matter' thing really works!" he declared.

"Don't get cocky." Naruto looked down at Hunter who was still normal size and standing on the roof of a nearby skyscraper. "This may be your mind but Bazil Brush over there is still a pretty tough customer."

Naruto angrily folded his arms "I don't need your advice. I can handle this all by myself. Believe i-arrgh!"

The Fox had gotten back up and had launched itself at Naruto in a flying rugby tackle. The two crashed to the ground with the Fox on top trying to get its jaw round Naruto's head.

"Hunter! Help!"

"What happened to 'I can handle this all by myself'!"

The Fox made another lunge at Naruto's head that he only just avoided. "Ahh! Alright alright! I was wrong, I need your help!"

"Alright, just keep him busy for a sec." Hunter turned, jumped down off the roof and disappeared from view.

This was not the kind of 'help' Naruto had in mind "Keep him busy!? Hunter!"

The Fox snapped at him again, forcing Naruto to grab hold of its jaws in an attempt to keep it at bay. "**I would have waited forever for this."** the Fox applied more force, pushing its jaws closer **"I will finally be rid of you!"**

"Guess again!"

SMACK!

Something large and metallic slammed into the Fox's side, knocking him off Naruto and into a row of buildings. The Fox looked up at where the attack had come from **"How dare you...what in the-?!"**

"Hunter?" Naruto had expected to see a giant sized Hunter, instead he was looking at a massive humanoid robot that looked like it was made of at least five separate components all joined together.

"A perfect copy of the Mighty Morphin' Megazord, if I do say so myself." Hunter's voice came booming out of a speaker somewhere in the robots head.

Naruto blinked a few times, trying to digest what he was seeing "Mega-what?"

The robot looked down at him "Long story."

"It kinda looks like it's made out of plastic."

If looks could kill Hunter would have buried Naruto "Everyone's a critic."

The Fox tried to attack again but the megazord moved out of the way and as the fox was going past it grabbed hold of one of its tails and began to spin round and round getting faster all the time swinging the Fox around like an oversized bean bag. Eventually Hunter had the mech let go and the Fox went flying over several streets before crashing into a row of housing.

"Ok, enough toying about. Fire up the eighties music!" an electric guitar began playing in the background "Calling in the Power Sword!" A huge sword dropped out of the sky, embedding itself in the street in front of the Megazord. The giant mech grabbed hold of the hilt and pulled the blade out of the ground. As the Fox began to get back up the sword started to glow and spark with power. "Oh, this is all my ten year old self's fantasies coming true!"

**"I am not afraid of that!" ** spat the Fox, defiantly.

"And that's your last mistake!" The Meagzord and the Fox ran at each other and as the Nine Tails slashed at the robots mid section Hunter sliced right through the beast. The two of them went a few more steps so they were now facing away from each other, then there were several explosions of sparks that erupted from the Nine Tailed Fox. It gave a roar of defeat and pain as it sank to its knees then it fell flat on its stomach.

The Megazord vanished, leaving Hunter hovering in the space where its head had been, then he slowly descended to the roof of a skyscraper. Naruto stood up and walked over to the same building, which was just short enough to reach his eye level.

"Well erm...that was...erm..."

"Awesome?" suggested Hunter.

Naruto let out a defeated sigh then gave a quiet "Yes."

Needless to say, Hunter looked very self satisfied at the moment "As it should be. Now, on to part two."

Naruto gave him a sideways look "Hmm, part two?" then he began to slowly fade away, although from his perspective it was Hunter and the Fox who were vanishing "Hey..what...how come you're disappearing."

"Relax kid. I'll be back shortly." said Hunter.

Naruto was about to say "Don't call me 'kid'!" but he vanished before he could.

A loud groan brought Hunter's attention back to the Fox, who was getting back up again. The Beast turned and looked right at him **"You...DIE!"**

It opened its mouth and fired a tailed Beast Ball at Hunter with utterly obliterated the building he was standing on, and several others behind it to. As the dust settled the Fox smiled evilly as it saw that Hunter was gone.

For a moment it though it had won until Hunter's disembodied voice said "You know, this wasn't necessary. All you had to do was talk to me, but nooooo. You just wanted to fight."

**"GAAAH! Damn you! Damn you! I will kill you you empty freak! You and the brat!"**

Hunter's laughter echoed around the city "Hahahaha! Ohhhhh, Naruto's not here anymore."

The Fox snarled angrily **"Impossible. This is his mind, he's always here."**

"We're not in his mind anymore." Dark clouds formed in the sky, blotting out the sun. "I needed you distracted while I...moved the playing field."

**"Moved the...to where!?"** the Fox demanded. All of a sudden the world changed. The buildings became larger, reaching up to the sky, their colour changed to an inky black as they seemed to close in around the Fox. The sun was completely lost behind the rolling black clouds, the only light now came from the yellow lights in the windows. Lightning tore the sky and the Fox was hit by a sudden deluge of rain

**"You think this will scare me! Where are we!?" **the Fox yelled.

Something moved behind it. Before the Fox could move a massive claw reached down and grabbed hold of it, lifting the beast up into the air. The Fox struggled in a vain attempt to break free, then it went completely still as it got a good look at what was holding it. The claw belonged to a massive creature that towered over the buildings, most of which only came up to its knees. It's whole body was featureless and seemed to be made of a black and purple substance that was fire, oil and smoke all at the same time. The face had no nose or ears, just a jagged, broken mouth and two bright yellow eyes.

"My mind." said the monster with Hunter's voice.

The Fox felt something hit it in the chest, then a creeping feeling of cold. It looked down, and instantly wished it hadn't. A large purple and black claw was reaching into its chest.

**"ARRRRRGGHHHHH-"**

The whole world faded away. When it returned the black city was gone and the Nine Tails found itself on a large circular platform of rock amid a sea of fire and lava.

"So this is your mind." The Fox whirled round and found Hunter standing at the opposite end of the platform, looking out over the sea of fire. "Quaint, I guess. This means I'm in your mind, while I'm in my mind, while I'm in Naruto's mind. Very Inception."

**"Keep away from me you freak!" **Roared the fox, with a little more panic in his voice than he would have liked.

"Oh, I intend to." With a loud clang and huge metal cage dropped out of the sky and trapped the fox. As the Fox panicked and tried to break out hunter calmly walked up to the bars and put something on the floor. The Fox looked down cautiously and saw...a mouse. A grey mouse with a handlebar moustache and a ten gallon hat. And a tiny guitar.

**"Is this supposed to be a joke?"**

Hunter gave the Fox a smile that made its hair stand on end, then he just walked away. The mouse cleared its throat then...

"OHHHHH! Frogawentacortin did ride C-c-c-crambo! Frogawentacortin he did ride C-c-crambo! Crambo he-"

TWANG!

The Fox let out a snickering laugh as one of the guitar strings broke. The mouse looked at the instrument for a moment, then it reached up, its tiny arm extending impossibly until it grabbed hold of one of the Nine Tails whiskers. With a sharp yank it pulled the whisker from the Fox's snout and used it as a replacement string. The fox reared back in shock and pain, clamping its front paws over its nose.

"Can't sing without a string!"

**"Ouch! you da-"**

"OHHHH! Frogawentacorting he did ride-"

TWANG!

The mouse looked back up at the Fox.

**"No...no absolutely not! Hunter! This isn't fu-OUCH!"**

"Can't sing without a-"

**"SHUT! UP!"**

TWANG!  
"**ARRRGGGHH!"**

With the Nine Tails now disposed of he closed his eyes and imagined a filing cabinet, which promptly appeared out of thin air in front of him.

"Here we go." Hunter grabbed hold of the top draw and opened it. All at once he was assaulted by images, sounds, smells all confused and muddled up.

Eventually this torrent of images began to calm and Hunter was able to make out particular events. One moment, apparently from early in the Nine Tails life, showed a small, car sized version of the Fox along with three other younger tailed beasts that Hunter recognised as Matatabi, the Eight Tails and that sand monster from the invasion a while back.

**"I'm just saying." **said the Nine Tails. **"Our power is based on the number of our tails. So that makes me the most powerful and you the least, Shikaku."**

Shikaku clenched its claws angrily **"What! I dare you to say that again you overgrown poodle!"**

That wiped the smirk off the Fox's face **"Walking sand castle!"**

**"They're at it again." **sighed Matatabi as the other two continued their shouting match.

**"This is what, the fifth time today." **added the Eight Tails.

Pushing this image away Hunter found a more recent memory. In the middle of a devastated forest at night a weakened looking Nine Tails was leaping towards a small blond baby, thrusting out one of its massive sharp claws. Two people were rushing to intercept it, one a man who also had blond hair and a redheaded woman.

**"I am NEVER going back!" **roared the Fox in rage and desperation.

The two adults got between the Fox and the baby and-

SHHHIK

"...oh no." was all Hunter could say.

The next memory showed a much large Fox battling with a wooden golem under the light of a full moon. Hunter could make out two men standing atop the titans, the one with the golem was the first Hokage, the other man he didn't recognise.

"Here I come Hashirama!"

"It doesn't have to end like this Madara!"

This image faded too and was replace by another memory from the Fox's early years. In this one he was sitting in front of an old man with spiky light brown hair, greyish skin, two small horn like protrusions on either side of his forehead, and weirdest of all a third eye in the middle of his forehead. Clearly not human but Hunter got the sense that he wasn't evil, and the fox seemed to be looking at him like a really young child looking at its father.

**"So what happened then?"** the Fox asked.

The Old man smiled as he spoke "My followers and I went and fought a great battle against the army of the Dark Ones. They had us outnumbered but eventually we drew out their leader. The Dark Warrior who'd drawn them to our world. I faced him in single combat and bested him, then his minions sensed weakness and turned on him before disappearing into the shadows."

The Nine Tails looked awestruck "**Wow! Do you think they'll ever come back."**

The old man's face became serious for a moment "I hope not. But if they don I know that you and your fellow Tailed Beasts will be here to stop them. That's one of the reasons I created you all. This worlds guardians."

The Fox tilted its head slightly "**But you'll be here to help us if they come back, right?"**

The man kept smiling but his eyes looked sad now "Ah, yes. I've...been meaning to talk to you all about that."

Hunter slammed the file shut. He looked over his shoulder at the Fox, who was still imprisoned and looking all around for the mouse. The rodent in question was on his head and once more it reached out and yanked out another whisker. At a mental command from Hunter the cage and the mouse both vanished leaving the Fox standing there looking annoyed and perplexed. It looked down at Hunter, who was looking back with an unreadable expression.

"Party's over."

For the umpteenth time that day the world remade itself. Both of them were now back where all this had started, Naruto's dark and wet sewer of a mindscape and the boy himself was there too, having been sat cross legged on the floor waiting for them to return. Still wanting its freedom the Fox charged at Hunter and Naruto but before it could even get close the massive doors of its prison slammed shut and Hunter smacked the paper seal over the join. The Fox smashed headfirst into the metal bars and crashed to the floor with a massive thud.

Naruto jumped to his feet and instantly started asking questions "Hey...what happened, where'd you two go!?"

"No where good." muttered Hunter. "This was a total waste of my time." He shot the Fox an angry look "You don't know anything about me or the Nobodies."

The Fox ignored him and banged against its cage again in frustration "**How dare you invade MY memories you..you...whatever you are!? And how dare you shove me back in here again!"**

"I know what you've done." some of the Fox's anger turned to confusion. "I had a good leaf through your brain. Every action, every choice you've ever made has lead to misery and death. People died." Hunter gave Naruto a sad glance "And a lot of them didn't have to."

**"They all had it coming!" **yelled the Fox **"They always treated me like a beast or a weapon with no will of my own! They had no right-"**

"Oh don't play innocent with me." Hunter interrupted "You never tired to prove them wrong, heck, you enjoyed playing the monster. You..." Hunter clenched his fists, then after taking a deep breath he relaxed. "You don't have anything I want. I'm done with you." with that he turned and began walking away.

**"Hunter!" **the Fox roared in anger as it banged against it's cell doors"**Don't you dare turn your back on me! You think you can take the moral high ground!? If even half the stories I've heard about you are true then that makes you a monster beyond imagining!" **he ignored the Fox and just kept walking.

Naruto looked from Hunter to the Fox and back again "Is anyone going to tell me what's going on!"

Hunter stopped for a moment. "It's...I don't think it's my place to say."

Naruto gritted his teeth in anger and frustration. Hunter had been leading this crazy train since it started but now it was his turn to take control. "That's it! Nap time's over!" using his mind Naruto created a massive fissure in the ground to his left. The rupture was so sudden that Hunter fell over. Then Naruto jumped into it. A long time ago he'd heard from someone that if you die in a dream you'd wake up in reality. Now seemed like a good time to put that to the test.

"No you idiot!" Hunter jumped in after him.

Naruto shut his eyes as the ground got closer and closer.

"We're still connected! If you wake up now you'll-"

_Back in the real world._

Naruto's eyes shot open. The sight of Hunter's claw still in his chest freaked him out but that shock was quickly replaced by everything else he could see. Where once he'd seen the world like any normal person now he could see the electricity in wires, people in their homes, their bones, blood vessels even the neurons firing in their brains. He could see flocks of birds in the distance and tiny insects in the dirt. And when he looked at his friends all around him he didn't see their worried faces, he saw something inside them. A light and dark mixture that burned like a tiny sun.

"Beautiful isn't it." Hunter's voice was the only thing Naruto could hear.

"You...see like this all the time?" he croaked.

"Yep. Don't it just drive you mad?"

A sharp bolt of pain in his skull brought Naruto to his knees. Hunter withdrew his claw and instantly his vision returned to normal. He felt a woman by his side, Shizune maybe.

"Naruto! Naruto are you alright?" yep, it was Shizune and she sounded concerned. Naruto groaned out an 'uh huh' then he got to his feet and turned to his fellow genin.

"Hey guys. Ow!" another sharp burst of pain but less intense than last time. Then he noticed the strange look everyone was giving him. "What?"

"Naruto. Your nose." said Kiba.

Naruto brought his hand up to his nose. When he took it away he saw blood on his fingers.

"For a minute there your eyes were like Hunter's." said Sasuke.

"What happened to you two?" asked Sakura.

"That's what we'd all like to know." a very pissed off Tsunade marched past them all and walked up to Hunter, who was being held at sword point by several ANBU ninjas. "Explain yourself! Just what did you do to Naruto. If you hurt him then so help me I'll-"

"Hey! First off, he'll be fine. He'll just have a killer headache for a while. And second it his own fault, I told him not to wake up while we were linked. Human minds aren't meant to take that much info. It's a miracle his eyes didn't burst into flames."

That didn't comfort Naruto in the slightest, or placate Tsunade.

"You don't have the right to play with Naruto's life like that, or anyone's." said Jiriya "You're not a god Hunter."

Hunter jammed out his left hand which was now inexplicably holding a large jewelled crucifix. "I FORGIVE your blasphemy!" The cross burst into flames and Hunter automatically dropped it. "Well...someone up there doesn't like me."

"That's enough." said Kakashi "Hunter, you've been a royal pain for months now but it's over. So...GIVE ME MY BOOK BACK!"

Hunter shook his head "Nope. I'm keeping the book and I'm escaping to."

"How!?" yelled Ino incredulously "You're surrounded by every ninja in the village! Even you can't get out of this!"

Hunter gave them all his best evil grin. "I'd duck if I were you."

Everyone looked confused for a moment, then they heard it.

"Steady!"

It was Hunter's voice but he hadn't spoken. It sounded like it was coming from...

"Steady!"

"Above us!" yelled Guy.

"Get down!"

Everyone jumped back from Hunter as something dropped out of the sky and smashed into the ground next to him. That something got up and revealed itself to be a blue copy of Hunter.

"Let us do it!" said the clone.

"Yes." the original nodded "This is Commander Boreal!"

"You have Captain Diomades!"

"We shall not FAIL!"

Everyone was at a loss for words.

"T-there's...t-two..." stammered Sakura.

"I always thought if I were any more good looking you'd need two of me to hold all this gorgeous!" declared Hunter.

"T-this is still a dream right?" stammered Naruto "This has to be a bad dream!"

The twin Hunters smirked, then they ran towards the assembled ninjas.

"Blizzra!"

"Thundra!"

Several shinobi were trapped in ice, or blasted by lightning bolts. Blue Hunter barrelled into Asuma, then body flickered away as Kureni tried to stab him in the back. He reappeared off to her left and began beating the snot out of several other ninjas.

Hunter went straight for Naruto, ducking under one of Tsunade's punches and leaping over Jiriya. Seeing him approach, Naruto summoned up his chakra and made the hand sign for his most famous jutsu.

"Sexy jutsu!" one puff of smoke later and Naruto was replaced by an older, swimsuit wearing, female version of himself. His friends were less than impressed, they all fell over backwards in the face of Naruto's sheer stupidity.

"Two can play at that!" Hunter's body shifted and changed into his own female form.

"Unbelievable!" groaned Tsunade "You two are just as bad as each other!"

Hunter caught Naruto with a kick to the side and with a small puff of smoke the blonde changed back and went sideways into a wall. Kakashi and Sasuke both tried to hit Hunter at the same time with a duel pronged chidori attack. As they got close she spun on the spot, garbing Kakashi's arm "Look all you want..." then her hair came to life and wrapped itself around Sasuke's forearm. With both of them caught and unable to change direction Hunter smashed Kakashi into the ground and threw Sasuke into the air "...but don't touch the hair!"

This was when Naruto finally got back up. Things were not going well, Blue Hunter was trouncing most of the jonin, altering the environment with ice spells while Fem Hunter was gracefully dancing between everyone else, giggling like a hyper schoolgirl. She seemed to have focused her attention on Sasuke and kept yelling out "Notice me Senpai!" after every attack.

Sasuke tried to use the chidori again but Hunter simply grabbed hold of his hand, negating the jutsu and leaving him open to attack.

"Owww. Sorry Sasuke-senpai. Did I hurwt you?" she said in a mocking voice

Naruto charged back into the fray and was instantly whacked aside by Hunter's tail which suddenly sprouted from her back. Hunter was about to make a 'it's all in the tail' quip but she was interrupted by a shrill cry of "Take your hands off my Sasuke you harpy!" then there was a slight feeling on her left side.

She idly looked down and saw Sakura standing prone next to her, her fist extended outwards touching Hunter's ribs. When Lee had punched Hunter he'd just hurt his hand. From the look on Sakura's face she'd managed to break her knuckles. Hunter raised her hand to Sakura's forehead and casually flicked her away, sending the girl flying several meters back.

"Amateur." she muttered under her breath.

With hunter's attention elsewhere Sasuke made the hand signs for a substitution and in a puff of smoke he was replaced by a wooden log that Hunter promptly crushed in her grip. "I'm starting to have serious doubts about our relationship Sasuke-sen-huh!?"

The ground beneath her feet suddenly turned into a muddy bog, impeding her movement. Looking back over her shoulder she saw Jiriya kneeling close to the ground and making a hand sign.

"Gottcha this time." he said with a satisfied smile. "Now Tsunade!"

Hunter turned again, facing the other direction and saw Tsunade bearing down upon her, already pulling back her fist to deliver a boulder crushing blow. She had just enough time to catch Tsunade's first punch, but the second slammed into her stomach with enough force to knock her up out of the mud and cause cracks to appear over her body. Hunter landed on her back a few paces away. As she got up Tsunade hit her twice more, once on her left shoulder and on the left side of her face. She was about to strike again when Hunter grabbed hold of her arms, changing back into his male form.

"The worm has turned." he looked up at her and the Sanin could see the cracks that had appeared on Hunter's face, making him look like some kind of broken porcelain doll. Looking into the largest of the cracks that ran vertically past his eye she thought she saw something move. Then a yellow eye appeared in the crack, looking out at her.

"What?" she breathed.

"Blue!" Hunter looked over at his clone. "I have Steeled the Enemy! Prepare to Deep Strike!"

"For the Emporah!" declared Blue as he disengaged from Anko and Kakashi and jumped o his originals aide.

Tsunade looked to her left just in time to see Blue Hunter's foot before it connected with her face. At the same time Hunter let her go and she was sent spinning back.

"Areora!" Hunter cast an air spell, pushing Tsunade further away and blasting aside anyone close by allowing he and his clone to finish their attack.

"An easy target. For me." said Blue as he began channelling lightning magic in his hands.

"Orbital bombardment!" Hunter's body too began to crackly with electricity.

Tsunade got back up, shaking off the ringing sensation in her head. That was when she saw what the two Hunter's were doing. "Everyone get back!"

They both shot forwards as fast a lightning bolts. They got within a hairs breath of Tsunade before peeling off, one going either side, then they did an abrupt one-eighty turn and charged at her again from the sides. Tsunade jumped back but as the two of them made no attempt to follow her she realised that she'd been tricked.

"Both Hunter's smiled in the split second before they collided. This attack her worked perfectly in the forest and it had worked now.

"Thunder!"

"STOOORM!"

The two Hunter's met and a massive surge of electricity was unleashed. Tsunade got the biggest zap and anyone close by was hit by enough lightning to either knock them out or given such a large dose of electricity that they lost control of their muscles and fell spasming to the floor.

Blue Hunter walked up to his original and the two merged back into one. He rotated his shoulders then punched the air, letting out a cry of victory.

"I beat them all!"

"Not yet!"

Hunter turned and saw Sasuke standing a few feet away, charging up another chidori. The young Uchiha surged forwards, dragging the chidori along the ground, leaving a shallow gouge in the dirt behind him. As he reached Hunter he simply extended his hand and grabbed Sasuke's arm, cancelling the attack without so much as batting an eye.

"Annnd what was that supposed to do?" asked Hunter, almost tiredly.

It was only when Sasuke gave him an arrogant smile that his expression faulted. "Distract you."

"Expansion Jutsu!"

Choji's giant sized hand suddenly clamped down over Hunter's body. "Now, get him before-!"

Hunter gave an angry growl and broke loose of Choji's grip, throwing Sasuke aside in the process. He sensed movement behind him and that was when he realised what they'd done. They'd known that he'd be so focused on Sasuke that he be oblivious to everything else. Right in front of his face was a blue orb that could only have been a Rasengan, and behind that was Naruto.

Hunter had no time left to dodge, the Rasengan hit him on the left side of his face. There was a powerful gust of wind and for a moment Hunter and Naruto were frozen in place, the latter still pushing the Rasengan and the former still looking straight ahead in shock, his face half obscured by the blue ball of energy. Then his head jerked violently to the right and Naruto flew past him, landing a few steps away.

The two of them jumped back to a safe distance. "You ok?" asked Naruto.

"Hmm. Of course. Thanks but I didn't need your help idiot." Sasuke replied in his arrogant but still friendly tone.

"Oh come on!" yelled Naruto "I totally saved you there! Admit it!"

"It was impressive." said Kakasi "But I don't think we're done yet."

Everyone followed his gaze. Hunter was still standing, but there were large cracks all over his body now. He was leaning so far over that no one could see his face, his arms hanging limply down.

"Why won't he just go down?" groaned Shikamaru.

"What are all those cracks?" Asked Tenten, which was a question that just about everyone wanted answered.

"It's a shell." said Jiriya. "Hunter's made of two parts, an outer shell of solid chakra that he can mould and the real him his inside."

"The real him?" Naruto repeated, wondering just what the 'real' Hunter was.

There was a long silence. Then, in front of almost the entire village part of Hunter's face , the part that Naruto's Rasengan had struck, fell away, dropping to the floor where it disintegrated into darkness.

"What was that?" asked Naruto, nervously.

"It looked like a part of him...broke off." said Shikamaru, who was just as stunned as everyone else at this point.

Hunter rose back up, revealing his face. Everyone gasped, some even screamed.

"W-what..." Tsunade stammered.

"I don't believe it." whispered Naruto.

Hunter's face was split in two by a jagged line. The right half was completely normal but the left was jet black, with one glowing yellow eye, a broken crack for a mouth and three tendril like whiskers sprouted from the top of the head down to his jaw forming a half mane.

"Ok. That may have hurt." Only the left side of Hunter mouth moved when he spoke now. "What? What's everyone looking a-Gaahh!." Hunter caught sight of his own reflection in a window.

"Y-your face...What are you!?" yelled Sakura, recovering somewhat from the shock.

Hunter didn't answer her, he just continued to stare at his reflection as body began to fix itself. The cracks all closed and the human side of his face grew, covering the monster side until he once again looked perfectly normal. "I don't owe you any explanation. In fact, you all owe me a lot. Sort of. Maybe. Ish."

'Just what is wrong with this guy?' thought Naruto.

Hunter's eyes flicked up to the rooftop "About time...BYE!" Hunter jumped right over their heads and landed on the roof above them all.

"I seeee you." he said to the small Creeper Nobody hiding up there. Hunter had known that looking for the Nobodies was not working so he'd staged this whole day as a way of drawing the Nobodies out and it had worked like a charm.

The Creeper shifted into a bird like form and tired to fly away but Hunter gave chase. He heard a few cries of "After him!" and "Don't let him get away!" from behind him but he ignored them and focused on the Creeper.

"Come on. Come on...yes!" then the moment he'd been waiting for arrived. The spy tried to teleport out. He jumped up and grabbed hold of its tiny legs and just as the teleport took effect he felt something grab on to his leg.

The world around him vanished and for a moment all was darkness and he had the strange sensation of falling, then colour returned and he found himself standing in a corridor that was so white it was almost glowing. With one Darkness powered punch he destroyed the Nobody, which shattered into pieces and disintegrated.

A light to his left caught his eye. When he looked round he saw a window beyond which lay...

"Wow."

Outside the window he could see a world, the Elemental Nations standing amidst a swirling ocean of ever shifting colour. It all looked so peaceful and-

"Hunter!"

Hunter spun round, eyes wide. "What!?"

Standing there was Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi, all of whom were in combat stances and giving him very angry looks. "What!?"

"What did you do Hunter? Where are we!?" demanded Kakashi

Hunter's arms went limp and he hunched over tiredly. There was no way he'd be able to cover all of this up.

"Oh snap."

* * *

Snap indeed.

Tune in next time for major world jumping and cameos by a whole bunch of characters good and bad all the while Thorn and his new allies make their final preparations for war.


	16. Chapter 15

I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while now, in fact the idea of it is what lead to me writing this fic in the first place. It's gone through a few re-writes but I'm reasonably happy with it now. I'm still not sure if I should have thrown in a few more world as cameos but I also don't want this chapter to bee too long either. Sorry if a world you wanted to see didn't make it but there will be other opportunities I promise.

There is one little thing I'd like to mention before I continue. A while ago I got a PM from LanternLover23. She said she like my story so far and requested that I include an OC of her own. I've never gotten a request like this before but I accepted and she does indeed make an appearance in this chapter. So Lantern, If you're reading this, thank you for your kind words and I hope I've done your character justice.

Now, to battle!

* * *

Chapter 15

Hunter looked at all three of them in turn, surprise and disbelief written all over his face. "How...when...WHAT!?"

"Alright Hunter where are we?!" demanded Sasuke.

"It's gotta be his secret base." said Naruto, then he looked out the window "What the!?"

Hunter tried to obstruct his view "Erm...nothing to see here just er...erm..."

The rest of team seven had followed Naruto's gaze and now they were all staring out the window at their world getting smaller and smaller as the ship they were on moved through the Ocean Between.

"I...did not expect that." said Kakasi.

"What...is that." breathed Sakura.

Hunter's brain was working overtime to try and lie his way out of this "Um...it's an optical illusion! Erm swamp gas ...is... is refracting the...er...light from ...Venus?"

They all gave Hunter an unconvinced look.

"You're not going to buy it are you?" he asked, resignation in his voice. "Alright. The truth. You're not in your world anymore."

There was a stunned silence as the three genin and jonin took this in.

"Then...where are we?" asked Naruto.

Hunter spread his arms wide. "Welcome to the Ocean Between. It's basically the space between worlds and it's very ocean like. Hence the name. But if your being more specific, you're on a ship."

"Your ship?" asked Kakashi.

"No. It belongs to the Nobodies."

"Oh, I remember." Naruto chimed in "You said you were hunting them. I thought you just made them up?"

"Well, I didn't. I planned all of today to draw them in. I mean, a spectacle like that how could they not notice?"

"So it wasn't all just for your twisted amusement." said Sasuke.

Hunter shrugged "Well, that too." the four ninjas all feel over backwards. "Anyway. A Nobody took the bait and when he tried to jump out I hitch hiked. Now how did you all end up here?"

"Hmmm." Naruto scratched his chin. "Well, the last thing I remember before we got here...I grabbed on to your leg."

"And I grabbed Naruto's arm." said Sasuke.

"And I held on to Sasuke!" Sakura practically squealed.

"And I grabbed on to Sakura." said Kakashi. "Well, that solves that mystery and a few others too. You're not from our world are you?"

Hunter shook his head "Nope. Now as much as I'd love to tell you more, we've got work to do."

"Hold up. What do you mean we?"asked Sakura "We're not part of this craziness! Send us back to the Leaf. Now!"

"Sakura does have a point." said Kakashi "The Hidden Leaf isn't involved in your fight with these 'Nobodies'. Plus seeing as how you're still a wanted criminal, we're not obliged to help you."

Hunter crossed his arms "Oh. Is that so? Then how are you going to get home without my help, hmmmm?"

Naruto gave a growl of anger "Not funny Hunter! Send us back right now! Just open up one of those portal things or we'll make you send us back!"

Hunter raised an eyebrow at him "Cute. First off, you couldn't beat me when you had an entire village helping you. Now there's just four of you, and believe me I'm being generous adding you three nimrods to the count." Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all gave him an annoyed look that he completely ignored. "And second, my portals are dangerous to unprotected humans. If you go in one end there's a fifty-fifty chance you won't come out. You're lucky you got here in one piece."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, then Kakashi gave a defeated sigh and said "Looks like we're helping."

"What!" Sakura screeched "Kakashi-sensai, you can't seriously trust him! He's not even human!" Hunter briefly fantasised about throwing her out into space.

"It's not like we have much choice." Sasuke pointed out.

"Humph, just as long as he doesn't do that mind merge again." huffed Naruto.

"Deal." agreed Hunter "Your brain is a dump anyway."

At first Naruto nodded in satisfaction, then he finished processing what Hunter said "Hey!"

"Alright, now that that's settled." Kakashi clapped his hands together, drawing all eyes to him. "The first thing we need to do i-"

"Oh no!" Hunter suddenly appeared in front of him and placed a finger over his lips (or where he guessed his lips were) "No no no. I'm calling the shots now buddy."

"We're not taking orders from you." said Naruto. His two team mates nodded in agreement.

"You will if you want to make it back home. You're in my world now, not your world." Hunter took a few steps away from them, towards a large mechanical door that dominated the far wall "And I've got friends on the other side!"

The door opened and five Dusks and a Berserker walked in. Hunter looked round over his shoulder, then back at the ninjas. "Just to clarify, these are not the friends I was referring to."

The Berserker lifted its claymore up over its head and brought it crashing down on Hunter who caught it with both hands. While he was immobilised the Dusks streaked past and went for the others. Naruto was momentarily paralysed as two of the unreal monsters squiggled through the air towards him, then with a crackle of lightning Sasuke shot past, hitting one of the Nobodies with a chidori. The thing shattered like glass and Sasuke turned, giving his rival a smug smile.

"You just gunna stand there idiot, or are you going to-oofff!"

Sasuke was cut off when the Bezerkers hammer hit him in the side, knocking him down. He looked up and saw the hammer was in Hunters hands. Apparently he'd wrenched it from the Bezerkers grasp and in doing so he'd swung it round behind him and hit Sasuke.

"Opps, sorry." said Hunter, insincerely.

"If you three aren't too busy!" Kakashi side stepped a Dusk then he threw a kunai at its head. The blade passed harmlessly through. 'Hmmm. Immune to conventional weapons yet Sasuke's chidori worked perfectly.' he thought. "Naruto! Sasuke! These creatures are only vulnerable to ninjutsu so conserve your chakra and don't miss!"

The two boys nodded in acknowledgement, then they heard a noise and saw two Dusks slowly walking towards them. As Sasuke charged up another chidori Naruto saw that Sakura was in trouble. Unlike the two of them she had no real offensive ninjutsu which was probably why a lone Dusk was closing in on her.

Sasuke noticed too "Go! I can handle these two!"

Naruto nodded and summoned a Shadow Clone who help him shape his chakra into a Rasengan before vanishing. Once the jutsu was stable Naruto ran to Sakura's aid. At the same time Sasuke shot forward at high speed towards the two Dusks. Moving with unnatural speed and flexibility the Nobodies slithered out of Sasuke's path. The Uchiha heir's eyes widened in shock. The chidori was a powerful assassination jutsu but it had one big weakness; once you start running you can't change direction. One of the Dusks grabbed Sasuke's arm, bringing him to a halt. The other slithered across the floor and tripped Naruto up, his Rasengan impacting uselessly against the metal floor. Further away Sakura's mind was racing, trying to think of any lesson from her academy days that could get her out of this. The Dusk in front of her spasmed violently, then it darted forwards. Instinctively she shut her eyes and brought up her arms to defend herself, then she heard a loud clang.

Gingerly she opened her eyes and saw the Dusk crushed under the Bezerkers hammer, right before the two shattered and faded away. The two Dusks circling Naruto and Kakashi were both blasted by two dark bolts, while the one entangled with Sasuke was crushed by a hook on a chain.

They all looked over at Hunter, who was standing before the body of the defeated Bezerker. "See, now that is why I didn't want any of you here." the Berserkers corpse faded away "You're completely out of your depth so now I've got to get what I came here for **and** keep you alive."

"We could have handled them if you'd told us how to fight them!" said Sakura, angrily.

"Don't get snippy with me pinky. You're the most useless one in this bunch. Do you even have any talent at all?"

Sakura looked down at the floor, then Naruto stepped up to defend her "Hey, don't you talk to her like that! Sakura's the smartest person I know, she got the top grades in every academy exam!"

Hunter flung his arms out "Does this look like an academy to you!?" he let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a second he spoke again "Nobodies aren't like any enemy you've fought, and I don't mean that they're not human. They don't feel. No pity, no remorse, no fear or anything. They won't show restraint, they won't get arrogant and make dumb mistakes like Orochimaru. And they won't wait for you to charge up you super attacks either."

"We did alright against you." countered Naruto.

"Naruto you did terribly against me. All this time, you've never even really hurt me. And I was just playing with you. Ya think this lot'll pull their punches?" Hunter paused for a moment. When no one else challenged him he nodded and said "Alright then. Now that's settled, onwards!"

He turned on the spot and ran out the door that the Nobodies had used to enter. After a moments pause Team Seven followed him.

"Where are we going?" Naruto yelled as they ran through the twisting white corridors.

"No idea!" Hunter yelled back.

"He's joking right?" asked Sakura. When no one answered she let out a nervous groan.

Up ahead Hunter rounded a corner, then they heard him yell and he reappeared running back towards them. "Not this way! NOT THIS WAY!" he cried as he ran past them. They briefly wondered why, then a whole swarm of Dusks came tearing round the corner, squiggling through the air like flying snakes.

The ninjas all gave frightened yelps then they turned and ran.

"Are they still after us?!" asked Sakura after a minute.

Naruto looked back over his shoulder "Yes!"

"Where's Hunter?!" asked Kakashi.

"Over here!" The team stopped at a four way intersection and looked down the left path. Hunter was standing a little further ahead in front of a large open doorway, waving for them to follow. Needing no further encouragement they ran down the short corridor, past Hunter and into the room beyond. As soon as they were all through Hunter followed them in, closed the door and blasted the console for good measure.

"That ought to hold 'em." he said to himself.

"Erm...Hunter."

Hearing Naruto's voice Hunter turned round. "Ho-ly snap!" The room they were in was massive, the size of a football stadium at least and it was filled with glass display cases containing just about any object you can imagine, plus a hundred more you can't.

Hunter was absolutely fascinated by all of it and wasted no time in stalking past the cases, examining each and every one. "Holy Hand grenade...Shrine to Andraste. Shrine to Khorne. Shrine to Cthulhu...an original copy of the 'Origin of the Species'...Detective comics number one...the arms of Failbaddon?"

"What...is all this?" Sakura wondered aloud as she examined a case containing a old looking sword.

"Trophy room?" suggested Sasuke.

"It feels more like a museum." said Kakashi as he looked at a case that held a metal mask with two 'handle bars' on either side of the head. There was a small card in front of the item but it was in a language Kakashi couldn't understand.

"Cyber Man head." said Hunter, apparently reading Kakashi's mind.

"You can read that?" asked the silver haired jonin.

"Yeah, apparently I'm omnilinguistic. I can read and understand any language."

"Hey Hunter, what's this!?" Hunter looked over at Naruto and froze. The blonde was standing by an opened display and in his arms he was holding a large leathery egg. Several forgotten memories instantly flooded back into Hunter's mind as the top of the egg flowered open.

"Naruto!"

Something shot out of the top of the egg straight at Naruto's face. Fortunately his ninja reflexes kicked in and he managed to catch it before it got hold of his face, but its tail managed to wrap around his neck.

"Arrgh! Hel-Get it-arrk!"

Hunter ran up to Naruto, put his hand on the face hugger and zapped it with a powerful electric current. Both it and Naruto started to spasm as the electricity overpowered their muscles, forcing the creature to let go. With Naruto now free Hunter tossed the spider like parasite high into the air and blasted it with a dark bolt. For a brief moment the hugger hung suspended in mid air, then it faded into darkness.

Naruto gingerly rubbed his neck as he stared at the space where the creature had been.

"Don't touch anything." said Hunter.

Sasuke made his trade mark smirk, then his eyes were caught by a small gold ring in the case next to him. It look so plain, yet so...enticing.

"Precious." he whispered to himself as he slowly reached out.

Then someone smacked him on the hand. Snapping out of his mesmerised state he saw that Hunter was now standing next to him. "Don't. Touch." he repeated, more firmly this time.

Ignoring Sasuke's angry look Hunter started examining the various objects, looking for something useful. "Let's see. Tiberium crystal. Useless...Cylon arm. No. Book on Necromancy, ew defiantly no. Excalibur...hmm. Tempting but no. Ah, Chaos Emerald! Score!" Hunter opened up the case and took out a blood red gem the size of his fist.

"And how is that more useful than the sword!" exclaimed Naruto.

"The emerald's a teleporter. If worse comes to worse, then this is our emergency out button."

"Then why not use it to send us home now?" asked Sasuke.

Hunter sheepishly rubbed the back of his head "Umm. I don't know how it works."

All four of them gave him a deadpan look.

"You know what it is but you don't know how to use it?" said Naruto, accusingly.

"Do you know what a cannon is?"

"Well, yes."

"Do you know how it works?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to look sheepish.

"That's what I thought." said Hunter. "Now, I have come up with a new plan. We...are going to take this ship!"

Everyone blinked a few times waiting for the punch line. When it never came they realised he was serious.

"Hunter, this ship is huge, full of Nobodies and there are five of us." Kakashi was the first to point out the plans most obvious flaws.

"Exactly!" Hunter was not deterred "Taking this ship is absolute suicide, we'd be slaughtered in minutes. That's what makes it so brilliant, they'll never expect us to do something this stupid!"

Before anyone could protest further he ran off into the field of displays, looking at each one in turn for a useable weapon. "No, no, no ...BINGO!"

There was a sound of smashing glass off in the distance.

"And there's another problem Hunter!" Kakashi yelled in Hunters direction "All those Nobodies will still be waiting for us outside. Even you can't fight that many!"

"That's why we're using the back door!" Hunter yelled back.

Everyone turned to look at the other end of the room. There was no door, there wasn't even a window. It was just a solid piece of blank metal.

"There isn't a back door." observed Naruto.

"There's about to be!" Hunter's voice was now right behind them, which caused the group to turn to face him. Hunter was holding a massive futuristic looking cannon. It was the same size as a man and looked like it weighed a tone but Hunter was carrying it like it was made of cardboard. A long flexible metal hose came out of the cannons rear and connected to a equally huge backpack Hunter had awkwardly strapped to his back. Suddenly the device began emitting a slow wine and the blue power core located just back from the guns barrel began to glow and spark.

"I'd step out the way if I was you. Sakura you just hold still!"

All four of them jumped out of the way just as a ball of white energy left the barrel, shot across the room and hit the far wall where it detonated like a tiny sun. When the smoke cleared there was now a decent sized hole leading to another corridor. While the others were still hiding behind cover Hunter charged out, turned left and fired the cannon again yelling "This is my BOOM stick!"

Team seven slowly emerged from cover, staring after Hunter with deadpan expressions.

"We're being lead by an absolute lunatic." said Sasuke.

"Yep." agreed Kakashi "But that lunatic is also our only way back home, so let's get after him before we lose him."

"No danger of that." said Sakura "We just have to follow the explosions."

After several minutes of Hunter running through the ship with Hunter blasting everything that moved they came to a door that Hunter was convinced lead to the bridge. He reached down and unclipped something from his waist.

"Hello daddy. Hello Mum." he then threw the whatever-it-was at the door "Ma-ma-ma-ma Melta-Bomb!" the grenade exploded in a perfect orange sphere that melted a huge hole in the door and the wall, which Hunter instantly dived through.

There were several flashes of light as the plasma cannon fired and more sounds typical of a fight. When the noise stopped Hunter poked his head through the hole and said "All clear." before disappearing back into the room.

Taking care not to burn themselves on the still hot metal team seven followed Hunter onto the ships bridge, a large square room dominated by a viewing screen at the front with the rest of the wall space being taken up by consoles and panels which were themselves covered in blinking lights.

Hunter carelessly threw the plasma cannon aside and went straight for the captains chair in the middle. "Awesome" he said to himself as he settled in. "Right. Sakura! I want you on comms." he pointed at the girl, then at one of the consoles over on the right "Set us to receive only. I don't want the other Nobodies to know we're in control here."

"What other Nobodies?" asked Naruto.

Hunter scowled at him and pointed at the viewing screen. Outside was the multicoloured Ocean Between and floating just ahead of them were at least ten other ships. Most were of the destroyer variety, the same as the ship they were on but there were two skyscraper sized battleships that looked like horizontal clock towers. All these ships were facing away from them so it looked like their ship was picking up the rear of a convoy.

"Oh." said Naruto.

"Oh." agreed Hunter "Naruto, you're on weapons." Naruto's eyes lit up as he ran up to the indicated console "Don't fire until I say so!" Hunter quickly added, earning a disappointed groan from the blond.

"Sasuke, you're on sensors and Kakashi, you've got engines. That one ...hmm...there." Kakashi walked over to the section that Hunter pointed at. On the screen in front of him there was a display of the ship cut up in to various sections and a bar just to the left. Currently it was less than a quarter full and coloured green.

"That's our engine status." he explained "Keep your eye on that and yell if it goes into the red."

"What happens if it goes red?" the jonin asked.

"We explode." everyone froze as what Hunter said sank in while the man (well...Heartless) himself fiddled about with the chairs arm mounted computer in an attempt to transfer helm control. "Come on, come on...got it. Now what is...oh yes." by some small miracle Hunter found the ships database and sitting at the bottom of the screen was a small button that read 'Copy to local disk?'

"Score!" Hunter pressed it and sat back as the ships data began copying itself and after a brief pause a purple disk popped out of the side of the console. Hunter instantly grabbed it and stored it in his jacket inside pocket. What followed was an uneventful hour of following the other ships in the small flotilla. Naruto was snoozing after fifteen minutes, Sakura hadn't taken her eyes off Sasuke in who knows how long and even Kakashi had somehow managed to look more bored than usual. They were all so used to the quiet they jumped when Hunter yelled "Finally!"

"What!?" snapped Sakura.

"The other ships are dropping back into reality." said Hunter. The others looked at the viewing screen and saw that the ships in front of them were starting to disappear. "Dropping out in three. Two. One." the sea of colour on the view screen broke open like a curtain, falling back and leaving a star filled void in its place.

"Where are we?" asked Sakura.

Hunter gave an annoyed huff "We're in space, that's the extent of my knowledge. Anyway, your boyfriend's the one on sensors, ask him!"

"Erm, right there's..."Sasuke stared intently at the screen for a moment. "There's ten blue triangles."

"That's the Nobody fleet." reasoned Hunter "Anything else?"

"There's a...really big blue triangle further away. I...I think were heading right for it."

Naruto squinted his eyes at the view screen "You mean that white thing off in the distance?"

"Oh...that's not good." said Hunter as he realised just what they were looking at.

"What?" asked Sasuke.

Hunter gulped "Here's a hint. That ain't no moon."

As they approached the distant object Team Seven slowly realised what Hunter meant. The object they and the other ships were approaching was a huge square space station. The battleships in front of them must have been half a kilometre long, but this thing made them look like insects in comparison. Like most Nobody ships it had a style vaguely reminiscent of a cathedral or clock tower. A few tall spires poked out from the top along with the Nobody symbol that sat smack in the middle like a crown jewel. Right below that was a vertical trench in the otherwise flawless hull that contained a huge hole that could only be the main weapon.

"What...is it?" asked Naruto.

"It's a ship." Hunter didn't take his eyes of the screen as he spoke "That things got enough fire power to wipe out a whole city."

"Why would they even build something like that?" asked Kakashi.

"From what I gather the Nobodies have been around forever, but they've always operated in the background." Hunter turned to face them all, his expression serious "Looks like they're getting ready to step out of the shadows."

There were several soft beeps from Sakura's panel. When she looked at it a line of text appeared. "Erm...Hunter?"

"Well, what does it say?" he asked impatiently.

"I...er..." She nervously turned to look at him "I can't read this."

Hunter was suddenly overcome by the urge to hit himself "Of course you can't. Fantastic." On the view screen two destroyers broke off from the rest and took up position on their side of them. "Naruto. Now would be a good time to start shooting."

"But I don't know how!" Naruto protested.

"Just start pushing buttons!" A battleship lowered into view, turning side on so it could bring all its guns to bear. "Naruto!"

Even though he had no clue what he was doing Naruto started franticly pushing buttons, hoping that one of them would do something. Now, many of you are no doubt familiar with Naruto's adventures and as such you'll all probably know that his success is due in no small part to a large amount of luck. It was this very force that came into play now as he managed to hit the 'all power to weapons', 'Lock on target', and the 'open fire' buttons all in the right order. The result was a spectacular light show as red bolts lanced out into the sides of the two unsuspecting destroyers. At such close range there was no time to evade and both vessels were horrifically damaged. The ship on the left started to fall through space, on fire and slowly disintegrating while the one on the right exploded, ripping itself in half.

"Nice shootin' tex!" Hunter congratulated him, then he made a quick forward hand movement over his chairs arm consol. At once the ship dived down under the battleship and shot forwards at full speed. The rest of the Nobody fleet was closing in, firing everything they had. Hunter's hand were practically a blur as he tried to avoid the incoming barrage. Several missiles struck along the starboard side, causing the ship to rock violently.

"We're now in the yellow!" announced Kakashi.

"What was that!" cried Sakura.

"They shot us, what do you think!?" Hunter yelled back. "Mr Sulu, return fire! Spock, I need a gap in their formation! Scotty, don't take your eyes of the engines. Uhura try to jam their communications!"

The four of them all exchanged confused looks. "Did you forget our names?" asked Sakura.

"SHHH! You're ruining my Star Treck fantasy here!"

"You are unbelievable!" yelled Naruto as another volley hit the ship.

"Quiet Sulu or I'll demote you to Checkov!" he turned his attention back to the right hand panel "Come on, come on! Don't do this to me now. Oh snap, why won't you work!?"

"What's wrong now!?" demanded Sasuke.

Hunter twisted in his chair and without so much as a hint of sarcasm said "I can't get the radio to work!"

Despite the desperate situation team seven all stopped what they were doing and gave him four deadpan looks. "He's kidding, right?" asked Sakura.

Apparently he wasn't as moments later he found the right button and music started playing. _"When I die and they lay me to rest"_

"Oh, I love this one!"

_"Gonna go to the place that's the best. When I lay me down to die"_

"Goin' on up to the Spirit in the sky!" Hunter made another movement on the controls that sent the ship veering violently to the left, then it dived up and down in a wave pattern a few times before doing a barrel role.

"This is brilliant!" yelled Hunter "How are you guys holding up?" He looked over his shoulder and found that his four passengers were all lying in a tangled groaning mess to the left.

"Where did you learn how to fly!?" said a very angry Sakura.

Hunter was about to say this was his first time but the radar consol started beeping ominously. Sasuke disentangled himself from his comrades and went over to investigate. "They're...pulling back?" he announced.

"Why would they...ut oh." Hunter pressed a button and the view screen changed to show what was behind them. The other Nobody ships were pulling way, and the Dreadnaught was repositioning to face them.

"They're not retreating." said Kakashi. "They're getting out of the way."

"That thing's only half built." said Hunter "There's no way that main gun is operational."

A red light started to build inside the massive hole that was the Dreadnaughts primary weapon.

"Snap. Abandon ship!" Hunter smashed his hand down on the control panel. Outside there were several small explosions as the section containing the ships bridge disconnected from the rest of the vessel, then rocketed away at high speed. Barely a second later the Dreadnaught fired a massive continuous burst of its laser cannon. The small destroyer was utterly engulfed in red light, there wasn't even time for it to explode, it simply disintegrated. Not wanting to give the Nobodies a second shot Hunter typed in another command and the escape pod vanished back into the Ocean Between.

"Well, I'd call that a success." said Hunter as he leaned back and placed his hand on the back of his head.

"Success!?" yelled Sakura "You let them blow up three quarters of the ship!"

"Seeing as how they would have blown up _four_ quarters I think we came out pretty well."

"That was incredible!" Everyone looked round at Naruto who was apparently oblivious to the certain doom they'd narrowly escaped. "Hey Hunter, can we go back and blast more of them, that was awesome!"

"Go ba...Naruto we have no ship left! We are in a glorified escape pod, it has engines, life support and a ho..." Hunter stopped mid sentence and just stared off into the distance with a blank expression.

"And a what?" asked Kakashi.

"And a homing beacon."

A Nobody battleship materialised right in front of them.

"Snap!" Hunter hit the warp jump button again and the ship moved back into normal space. This time they were in an asteroid field. Not the safest place yes, but at least the battleship was gone.

"How long before they find us again?" asked Sasuke.

"'bout a minute. Maybe less. But we can hide here for-"

Another ship materialised before them. This was not one of the Nobodies however, it looked kind of like a giant green bird.

Hunter vaguely recognised the design and snapped his fingers as he tried to recall "Oh, I know who these guys are...they're the...erm..uh...It's on the tip of my tongue.."

There was a loud beep as a transmission played over the ships speakers. _"Attention unknown vessel. You have violated the territory of the Romulan Star Empire. Prepare to be boarded."_

"Romulan's that's it, they're the Romulans!" declared Hunter with joy.

"Should we...say something back?" asked Sakura nervously.

"Hmm? Right, yes, patch me through. Don't worry I know how to deal with these people."

Still not sure Sakura pushed what she hoped was the right button. A light beep followed as Hunter cleared his throat. "I am Aragahst! Master of Hounds! The lash of the Black legion! You and all your kind are COWARDS! Lowly Lickspittles! The-" Sakura closed the channel, much to Hunter's annoyance "What do you do that for!?"

"Are you trying to get us killed!?" she yelled back.

Suddenly the whole room rocked to the left, knocking everyone except Hunter off their feet.

"What was that!?" cried Naruto.

"I'm guessing that the people Hunter just insulted are shooting at us." said Kakashi.

"Relax, they won't destroy us." Hunter was oddly clam and reassuring despite the situation. "They'll torture us first, then execute us."

"T-torture!" Naruto stammered.

"Well, Pinky might get lucky and become an officers wife."

That was not what Sakura wanted to hear. Before Hunter could stop her she forced her hand into his pocket, took the chaos emerald and started shaking the thing while hysterically screaming "Work work work work! Get me back home!"

Hunter was rather bemused by this. He smiled and said "Relax. I was only jo-"

The emerald activated. Both it and Sakura were enveloped in a bright light, then they were gone.

"-king."

Everyone was total silent, staring at the space where Sakura had just been. Finally Hunter clapped his hands together and said "Well, that's the end of her. Come on, let's get out of here before the Space elves blast us."

"No! No no no. We can't leave without Sakura!" yelled Naruto "Wherever she went we need to go after her! Right Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Well, on the one hand I do have a responsibility to my students. On the other she is rather annoying." He noticed the murderous look that Naruto was giving him "Oh alright. Yes, we should rescue Sakura."

Hunter folded his arms "This isn't the marine core. I do leave men behind."

"Hunter!" Naruto growled threateningly.

"Look, even if I did want to go after her, this pod's too badly damaged."

"Which is your fault." Sasuke pointed out.

"So that just leaves portals. Remember what I said about them being dangerous?"

"I don't care! Sakura's our teammate and we won't leave her behind, right guys!?"

"What he said." Kakashi agreed half-heartedly while Sasuke only managed his trademark 'humph'.

Realising he was defeated Hunter gave up "Ok, ok. But if you come out the other side all homicidal and bent on world domination just remember I warned ya." Hunter raised his arms, creating a large black portal around the four of them. For him it was a normal trip, but for the three humans it was like being thrown in a tumble dryer without actually moving. The instant they re-materialised Naruto ran over to a nearby bush and threw up, Sasuke doubled over and Kakashi looked woozy.

"Well, that went better than I expected. Anyone feeling at all homicidal? Power-hungry? More than usual in Sasuke's case."

The young Uchiha shot him a look, which vanished when everyone heard Naruto scream. They looked round and saw that he was being attacked by several long metal tentacles with gaping maws filled with shark like teeth. Apparently these creatures were the 'bush' he'd just thrown up on. Hunter blasted them with a thunder spell. They spasmed a few times before dropping Naruto and slithering off.

"What were...w-" Whatever Naruto had been about to say died in his throat. With the monster attack over he finally had a chance to look at their new surroundings. They were standing on a hilltop overlooking a mechanical jungle that stretched as far as the eye could see. Stuck right in the middle of this strange landscape was a imposing fortress like structure that belched smoke from several large vents.

"That's...new." said Kakashi.

"Three guesses where Pinky is." said Hunter while pointing at the fortress.

There was a sound of foliage moving behind them.

"Hunter?" said Naruto nervously.

"I heard it."

The four of them slowly turned round. Where there had once been just a line of trees there were now also twenty bipedal mechanical alligator-like creatures that were staring at them with unblinking red eyes. Just when no one thought this could get any worse (or stranger) the machines transformed, standing up straight and becoming more humanoid, the large alligator heads folded away into their chests revealing smaller human-like head inside. It kind of reminded Hunter of Optimus Prime, but nowhere near as impressive.

Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi just blinked a few times, the weirdness of the situation rapidly becoming too much. Hunter stepped out in front, holding up a hand to his friends "Don't worry I'll use the 'universal greeting' on 'em." he cleared his throat "Now..what was...Live long and-no wait that's not...ah! Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah weep ni ni bong!"

This didn't work. The closest machine roared and charged at them. Hunter ducked under its punch and smashed his first right through its chest. "Ok, let's try Aerora!" The remaining beasts were all blown back by the wind spell. While they were getting back up Hunter pulled his arm out of the dead one's chest and ran back past the ninjas yelling "Come on, this way!"

Needing no further encouragement they ran off after him into the steel jungle.

"Do you know where you're going!?" yelled Naruto as they ran.

"Of course!" Hunter yelled back "The most dangerous place on this hell hole of a planet to rescue someone I can't stand!"

_With Sakura._

"LET GO OF ME!" Sakura screamed as loud as she could. After she'd taken that chaos emerald she'd found herself stuck in the mud outside this huge steel fortress. Almost instantly she'd been grabbed by these robot alligator things that had dragged her inside, then thrown her in a cell. After waiting for what felt like forever they'd come back for her and were now dragging her off to kami-knows-where. Eventually they emerged from the metal corridor they'd been walking through and into a massive open area that must have taken up most of the fortress interior. Sakura barely had time to look around before she was unceremoniously dumped down again.

"Hey, watch it you big-aaahhhh!" she half screamed as she looked down. The middle of the base was massive circular pit that was mostly full of water and a whole lot of metallic fins that kept swimming around in circles. Sakura couldn't see the creatures they were connected too, she didn't want to. Looking back the way she'd come she saw that she'd been placed on a long gang plank that extended out over the pit. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the hinge in the runway a few centimetres away.

"Has the Imperial Magistrate reached a verdict?" It was a cold, grating voice that spoke. Sakura looked up and saw some of the ugliest creatures she'd ever had the displeasure to look upon. The one that had spoken was mechanical, like everything else here. It had a humanoid torso that floated on a beam of light, a hideous face that connected to a distended skull and a mass of tentacles sprouting from where its arms should have been.

The other three had reverse teardrop bodies with five faces arranged in a ring around the top. Several tentacles sprouted from their lower section, coiling around a light beam that suspended them above the floor. They were 'seated' on three thrones that stood at various heights above the main floor, with the one in the middle being the highest. The faces of the alien sitting on it swivelled left as a new face clicked into place. It kind of looked like an oni mask.

"I have." it said in a calm voice dripping with malice.

"Guilty or innocent?" asked the first alien.

It's faces rotated again so now a face that looked a lot like a skull was facing her "Innocent."

Sakura breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Then the first alien said "Feed her to the Sharkticons!"

Sakura had just enough time to let out a screech of terror as the gang plank gave way beneath her and she tumbled down into the pit. Without warning she came to a jerking halt some distance above the water. She felt a pressure around her waist and looked down. Wrapped round her stomach was a metal chain with a hook dangling below.

"Hey Pinky!"

She looked up and saw Hunter, Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi standing at the edge of the pit looking back down at her.

"Just hang on. I'll have you up in-Wow!" Hunter stopped mid sentence and flung out his other chain, wrapping it around the other three ninjas, then he jumped into the air, dragging them with him. A second later the place where they'd been standing exploded, raining sparks and debris down on her. She thought she heard Hunter yell "Brace yourselves!", then she was falling again. The next few moments were a blur but she was pretty sure she hit the water. She caught a glimpse of huge metallic teeth right in front of the face then the world started spinning round and round until she closed her eyes, praying for it to stop.

When she opened her eyes again she was wet, cold and lying at the bottom of the now empty pit. She wondered where all the water had gone, then she saw the massive gaping hole in the floor with Hunter climbing out of it.

"Well, that was fun." he said.

Naruto stood up next to him and spat out some water. "Don't ever do that again. Ever!"

"Woos!"

Sakura stopped paying attention to them however when she saw Sasuke groggily getting to his feet. In the blink of an eye she'd dashed over to him and pulled in into a tight (and unwanted) embrace.

"Oh Sasuke! I knew you'd save me!"

Sweat drops appeared over each of the three onlookers.

"What about me?!" Naruto called out but she didn't notice.

"Why did I have to get stuck with a fan girl?" Kakashi wondered aloud.

"Erm, I'd hate to interrupt but...DUCK!" Sasuke pulled them both down just in time to avoid Hunter's chain, which swung over their heads and smacked into the sharkticon that was about to eat them. It wasn't alone either, all around them the sharkticons were getting back up and more were coming out of several holes in the pit wall.

"Now, I know you guys are alien space monsters and she's basically a little Japanese school girl, but this isn't _that_ kind of story!" yelled Hunter as he grabbed the nearest sharkticon and ripped its jaw open. "Well don't just stand there! WRECK 'EM!"

Naruto used his shadow clone jutsu to make a small army of clones, which started tearing into the mechanical monsters. "Rasengan!"

BOOM!

"Chidori!" Kakashi tore through several enemies with his signature justsu, then he leapt over one robots head, stabbing it with a kunai attached to an explosive tag. He landed behind it just as the blast ripped it open, but he was still surrounded by more sharkticons. Just as they charged forwards they were bowled aside by Hunter.

"Most. Fun. EVER!" he yelled as he jumped high into the air and threw a lightning bolt into the heart of the sharkticon ranks.

Sasuke tore through one with a Chidori, then hopped onto another's back and jammed a kunai into its eye. The monster bucked beneath him in an attempt to throw him off but before it could he used the kunai as a handle to swing down n front of it and throw an exploding tag into its mouth. Seconds later it exploded and there was one less sharkticon.

"There's too many!" yelled Sakura as another sharkticon charged at her. She waited until the last second, then she rolled to the side, slapping a tag on its side as it passed, destroying it.

Suddenly the sharkticons stopped attacking and began backing off, leaving a large clear space around their five would be meals.

"What's with them?" asked Naruto and his remaining clones together.

"I think we scared them." answered Sakura.

Each and every sharkticon transformed like the alligator robots had before. Small legs unfolded from their backs while there stubby beast mode legs moved up to their necks and became their hands, their piranha-like faces split apart and folded back to reveal humanoid heads. All of them continued to stand there, looking at each other nervously. The four ninjas all looked surprised while Hunter just acted like this was the most normal thing in the world.

"Sharkticons execute them!" yelled the alien on the throne.

"RRRAHHH!" Hunter let out a massive roar as his tail grew out of his back and smashed against the floor with such force that it made the ground shake. "I say execute them!" he pointed up at the five face aliens.

The sharkticons all exchanged glances with each other, then they all smiled in an unnerving manner. Without so much as a word they started running towards the far wall of the pit, forming a ladder up to their former masters.

"I think the problems on this planet are about to be solved very shortly." said Kakashi.

"Good, now Pinky" Hunter rounded on Sakura, fixing her with a glowing yellow stare "Hand over the emerald, before it-" the chaos emerald in her pocket suddenly started to glow and hum. Without thinking Sakura reached in and took the gem out, which made it glow even brighter. Acting fast Hunter grabbed hold of Sakura's arm and threw out his chain so it wrapped around Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi. Not a second later the world around them all vanished and warped until slowly sense reasserted itself.

They were now in a large circular corridor that was made out of something like blue light, otherwise it was utterly featureless.

Hunter rubbed his chin as he tried to work out where he was "Hmmm. I think this is the...yeah, it's the Eldar webway. I can use this!"

"So do you have a plan?" asked Kakashi.

"Yup. I know where we are now. Here's what we do, we go through this portal, find an Eldar Craftworld, steal a ship, plug in the emerald and jump around until we get back!"

"No!" Sasuke stepped forwards "You have the emerald, send us back. Now!"

Hunter shot him a murderous look "I told you I don't know how to work this thing! We might end up seven miles under the ocean, or in the middle of a volcano, or in the depths of space! Unless we have a ship you'll all die. Plus, I need some booty and Eldar prostitutes are cheaper and less shoddy!"

Everyone blinked a few times. "Erm...what!?"

"I said we need a boot up in our transportation department and Eldar ships are a lot safer and less shoddily built!"

Naruto scratched his head, not entirely convinced "Oh, right that's...what I thought..."

"Just use a dark portal again." Sasuke continued from where he'd left off. "We survived last time."

"By luck!" Hunter countered.

"If your too afraid then give the emerald to me and I'll use it!" He stuck out his arm, demanding the gem.

"Not a chance in hell." Hunter folded his arms defensively.

"Just because you're too big of a coward to take risks doesn't mean I am." Sasuke smirked.

Hunter became unnaturally still for a moment, then he got up and calmly walked over to Sasuke. "Sorry, I couldn't here you from...over there." he pointed back to where he'd just been "What did you just call me?"

"Are you two really going to do this now!?" asked a bewildered Naruto.

Both of them ignored him "I called you a coward." Sasuke's smirk finally faltered when Hunter started laughing at him "What's so damned funny?"

"Sasuke, either shut up and do as I say or I will throw you out there" he pointed at the wall of the webway "for the monsters living there to search and destroy. And let me tell you, the 'destroy' part is something they particularly _enjoy_."

It took a moment for Sasuke to realise what he meant. When he did catch on he went pale. "Y-you wouldn't."

Hunter was clearly enjoying himself now. "There's something they'll be 'destroying' with their huge daemonic weapons."

Sasuke agonised for a few moments, then he came to the conclusion that Hunter wasn't kidding and he hung his head in defeat.

With Sasuke placated and nowhere else to go the group marched onwards down the tunnel following Hunter's lead. Sasuke didn't say a word the whole time, he just kept shooting murderous looks at the back of Hunter's head. He stopped when Hunter's head turned one hundred and eighty degrees and told him that he could still see what he was doing, before spinning the rest of the way round to face the front. Needles to say it freaked everyone out, but Sasuke stopped with the glares.

After about an hour of walking down tunnels that all looked the same Naruto suddenly realised something "Um...does anyone have anything to eat?"

Everyone thought for a moment, then they realised with horror that none of them had any food.

"We're all going to starve to death!" wailed Sakura.

Hunter rolled his eyes "Don't be ridiculous. We're not going to starve, we'll be out of here before you know...it."

They'd reached a rather strange dead end in the webway. Well, not exactly a dead end. They were standing outside a pair of large and rather ominous looking black gates.

"Wrong way." said Hunter. Everyone else let out a collective tired groan "Come on, let's go back a little ways and-oh snap."

The group turned and found themselves staring down the massive gun barrels of ten power armoured figures. Their armour was blue with a gold trim and they wore helmets with tall flat crests on the top that were painted with horizontal stripes, not unlike the crown of an Egyptian Pharaoh.

"Hold your fire Rubrics. Well well, what do we have here." said the leader of this group. Like the rest he had blue armour with a gold trim but it was coupled with a great robe, his helmet had long curling horns and in place of a massive rifle he had a pistol and a staff. "Five rats scuttling about the webway here to try and take my prize from me."

"No, actually we're trying to find a way out." said Sakura, nervously.

"Oh, you're trying to leave!" the mans voice was thick with sarcasm "So, it's just coincidence you're here. Just chance that you are at the gates of the Black Library, the thing I, Ahriman of the Thousand Sons, have been seeking for eons? Hahahah!-Laugh with me Rubrics!"

The other figures gave coughing dust filled laughs.

"What's wrong with them?" Naruto asked in an aside to Hunter.

"They're made of dust." Hunter whispered back before addressing the newcomer "Look, I don't have time for...sorry, who did you say you were?"

"Ahriman of the Thousand Sons."

"Never heard of you."

"Former First Captain of the Thousand Sons legion?"

"Nope." said Kakashi.

"Caster of the 'Rubric of Ahriman'?"

"No." Sakura repeated.

"Seriously!? I'm only the most INFAMOUS and fucking POWERFUL sorcerer of all time!" Ahriman flung out his arms in exasperation, forcing his Rubrics to duck to avoid his staff hitting them in the face. "I've been searching for this Library for the better part of ten-fucking-thousand years and this time nothing will stop me from-"

"Do you have your card?" asked Hunter with a devious smile.

Ahriman faltered mid sentence "M-my what?"

"Your Library card." Everyone gave Hunter questioning looks but he winked at them giving a vague assurance that he knew what he was doing. "You can't stay unless you have one. So do you have it?"

"Ooooh, oh, of course, of course I have one. One second...oh was it in here or...hang on a minute" Ahriman started searching for the non-existant card " I'm sure I put in here in my robes or...did I put it under my pauldron? No...I swear I planned for everything, it must be here somewhere!"

"If you don't have it I'm going to have to ask you to leave sir."

"Alright it seems like I've lost it, but look I can just pay for a subscription."

"We don't take subscriptions directly anymore. You have to subscribe on our webway sight."

"Subscribe on the webway sight, ok. I guess I can do that while I'm here. Do you have a spare terminal I could- Wait a minute!" apparently he'd finally caught on "You're just fucking with me now aren't you!? I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the fucking-with here! I'll teach you a fucking lesson! OPEN FIRE RUBRICS!"

"Goodbye." Hunter aimed his arm at the webway at Arhiman's feet and blasted it with a dark bolt. The blue light cracked and shattered like glass sending the sorcerer and his cadre of warriors falling into the swirling vortex of colour beyond. Just before he vanished from sight Ahriman managed to yell out "Noooo! I was this fucking close! Can't I just catch a break!?...Oh, scream in desperation for me Rubricccsssssss..."

"Nice shot!" declared a very impressed Naruto "But how did you keep the rest of the floor from..."

CRACK!

The rest of the floor gave way and all five of them fell into yet another mess.

The place they were now in was some kind of strange alternate reality that didn't seem to abide by any rules. There was no land, sky, or water the whole place was basically a multicoloured collective seizure. Kakashi was trying his best to sit down, Sakura was trying to stop herself from spinning round and round in circles while Sasuke and Naruto were attempting to swim as if they were in a ocean. Hunter was just floating around, looking from left to right.

"Well now where are we!" Sakura screamed once she'd stopped spinning.

Hunter shrugged "Don't know. Maybe we should ask that guy."

The other looked in the direction Hunter was looking, and instantly wished they hadn't. It turns out that they weren't alone here, there was a ...thing floating alongside them. It had the appearance of a man sitting cross-legged, only it's body was deep blue and purple with a skeletal look and oddly textured skin. It had two lipless mouths, one at its crotch and one on what may have been its head. It had no visible eyes or ears, just a long mass of tentacles that covered the top portion of its head and fell back over its shoulders in a mockery of flowing hair. Two large, thick tendrils ran up from its shoulders and intertwined a few inches above its head.

**"Ohhh. Visitors. That hasn't happened in a while. Or maybe it has, who knows. Ha!"** It had a high pitched voice with a mild squeaky edge to it and disturbingly neither of its mouths seemed to move as it spoke.

"Wh-what are you!?" Sakura stammered.

**"Oh, no one important." **said the creature, innocently.** "Chances are I have no significance whatsoever in anyone's life. Then again I may just be the most important being in the universe!"**

"Hunter, what is it?" asked Naruto.

"Our ticket out. Greetings abominable creature of ...wherever this is. Don't suppose you'd be willing to say...warp us to a world of my choosing at all?"

**"Trying to cut a deal are we? If I'd have know that I would have brought snacks. Or maybe I did and I ate them all. But alas, how do we know snacks even exist in the first place? Or even if they are any good? Perhaps they're all just figments of imagination."**

"Did anyone catch any of that?" asked Kakashi, scratching his head.

**"Oh-ho-HO! Is your human mind to simple to comprehend some simple pondering? But that does make one wonder, what can we really comprehend? Does comprehension even exist? Hmm? We, sitting here, in a dimension of thoughts produced by a countless number of minds throughout time, expressing our feeling through simple sounds. Understanding but not understanding eachothers motives."**

Poor Naruto's brain was practical on fire at this point, and it was only getting worse as the thing kept talking.

**"Is that all we can truly comprehend about this universe? Is this really happening? Hmm...No, yes, maybe...One thing I am sure of. The only thing I can believe in without a shadow of a doubt...is...THAT YOU ALL SMELL LIKE POOP! HOHOHYORGHYORGHHYORGO!"**

Hunter was starting to lose his patience "I have no time for games man. Get us out of here!"

**"Hmmm...HmmMMMmmm...Hmmm? Yeeah, maybe...Hmmm...Yes? No? No. No! Absolutely, positively, impossibly NOT!"**

Hunter gave the creature a devilish smile, then he changed his right arm into a Heartless claw and poked the thing sharply in the face.

**"Ouch!"**

"Let us ouuut."

**"No!"**

Poke.

**"Oww!**

"Out!"

**"NO!"**

Poke, poke. Poke. Poke.

**"How about later?"**

"No! Out now!" Poke. Poke, poke, poke, poke.

**"ALRIGHT! Here!" **

A portal of swirling colour opened up a short distance away.

"Finally a way off this crazy ride!" said a very relieved Naruto as he floated on through the portal, followed by Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi.

Hunter went through last and instantly realised they had been duped.

"What are all these fluffy white things?" asked Naruto.

"Clouds." said Hunter.

Everyone had just enough time to register that when gravity took over and they started plummeting towards the ground.

"Emergency teleport!" Hunter yelled, although no one could hear him over the rush of air. He flung out his chains, wrapping them around the falling humans and pulled the emerald out of his pocket. As it activated he pulled the others close and shouted "Aerora!"

An instant later they were no longer in the open air, but a dark space where their fall abruptly ended with a crash. The air spell took most of the impact but that still left the four ninjas bruised and winded.

Being practical immune to damage Hunter was back up first "Is everyone alright. All not dead?"

"Owww." groaned Naruto.

"I'm...ok." said Sakura as she got back up, rubbing her head.

"Kakashi, Sasuke? Sound off."

"Here." Kakashi replied.

"Humph." Sasuke was less talkative.

"What...happened?" asked Naruto.

"That tentacle faced fiend tried to kill us is what!" yelled Hunter "Fortunately I used my op-plz-nerf powers to save you all. Again."

Now that everyone was safe they had time to examine where they'd landed.

"A cave." said Sakura, disappointedly "We're in a cave."

"Beats being dead." said Hunter. "If I ever get my claws on that multi-limbed calamari special..." he muttered something incoherent as he began walking up the rock walls.

"And where are you going?" asked Sasuke, rudely.

Hunter leaned back to look at them. "That way." He pointed up at an opening in the wall above him where a trickle of water was pouring out "I can smell fresh air. And I've got a good feeling I know where we are."

"I've just about had enough of this lunatic." muttered Sasuke.

"I heard that." Hunter growled back "You really should try being nice Sasuke, it'll make you feel good. 'Cause when it feels real good, like a feeling should, you gotta-!"

Someone or something in another part of the cave sang out "Ugh Ugh!" then several other voices chorused "Pass it on!"

"You gotta!" Hunter repeated.

"Ugh ugh!"

"Pass it on!"

"Hunter? W-what is that?" asked a fearful Sakura.

"Fraggles. Don't worry, they're harmless."

The ninjas had no clue what he was talking about but then they were used to that by now. They followed him up to the cave mouth and went in. After a while the bumpy rock of the cave wall gave way to uniform bricks.

"We're in a sewer!" declared a disgusted Sakura.

"A squeaky clean sewer." corrected Hunter "So quit complaining!"

It wasn't long before they came to a metal ladder that lead to a manhole. Sakura pushed her way past Hunter to go up first.

"Ladies fist." he muttered to himself before following her up. Once he was out he helped Naruto and Kakashi out but left Sasuke to get out on his own, much to the Uchiha's annoyance.

"This is..." Sakura began.

They were on a modern, deserted suburban street. There were several parked cars but nothing on the road. A few tweeting birds could be heard in the distance but that was all. There were no daemons, Nobodies, Romulans, nothing weird or dangerous at all.

"Nice." Naruto finished her sentence for her.

"It _looks_ nice." Hunter pointed out "Doesn't mean it _is_ nice. Same rules still apply, don't wander off and don't touch-"

CRUNCH

They all spun round to look at Naruto. The boy was smiling broadly as he tucked into a plate of cookies he was now holding. Then he noticed the looks everyone else was giving him.

"What?"

"Naruto!" Sakura growled menacingly "How can you even think of food at a time like this?"

"But they're cookies!" the boy protested.

Hunter was about to chip in when a fuzzy blue creature walked out from the building behind Naruto. He was about to walk straight past them when he saw the plate of cookies in the blonds hands. "COOOKKKIIEESS!" it cried as it proceeded to scoff down every last one of the pastries in front of a frozen Naruto "Omnomnomnomnom! Mmm! Thank you! Nomnomnom..." once all the cookies were gone it walked off, still noming on the remains of the sweets.

"What on earth was..." began Sakura. "No, actually I don't want to know. What I do want to know is how are we going to get back home?"

It didn't look like Hunter was listening to her as he was preoccupied looking up at the sky with a curious expression on his face. "I sense ...darkness...and a presence I've not felt since..."

"Kakashi-sensai, what's he talking about now?" Naruto muttered in an aside to his teacher.

"Ambiguous rubbish." Sakura stated as though it was obvious "I can do it to. 'And the night is dark but low! Here comes the dawn!'"

A large black portal suddenly appeared further down the street and out stepped an old foe.

"Pete!" exclaimed Hunter.

The cat like anthropomorph was less than happy to see him too. "You! What are you doin' here!?"

"Well I was here to attend Pope Gregory the Ninth's yacht party but it seems he gave me the wrong address."

The four ninjas just stared at the cat-man, thinking that things couldn't get any weirder. Wrong again.

"Tallyho!"

WHACK!

"Ooof!"

Out of nowhere someone appeared in thin air right above poor Naruto and hit him over the head with a large blunt object. He crumpled to the ground, anime stars whirling round his head. The other three ninjas thought they were under attack for a moment, but that thought (along with any others) vanished as they got their first look at the new arrival.

It was a girl just a little shorter than Hunter in her late teens or early twenties. It was very obvious that she wasn't what you'd call normal. She had shoulder length lavender hair, fair skin and pale white eyes, which wasn't too out of the ordinary, her cloths on the other hand were an altogether different matter. She wore a white tank top, a red miniskirt, a black sneaker with a bright neon stripped long sock on her left leg and a white sneaker and dull stripped long sock on her right. On her hands were black fingerless gloves and on her neck sat a pair of black headphones with a single pink neon stripe running across the top. On her back she had a sky blue hooded cape that fell down to her ankles. In her hand she was holding a broom of all things with a overly large red and white mint coloured 'C' at the end, which is what she'd smacked Naruto with.

"Oops, I missed." she apologised to Naruto, who was still lying dazed on the floor. Then she took up a battle pose and pointed her broom at a still confused Hunter.

"This little cat and mouse game is over Pete! Now why don't you and Darth McEvil here go back to..." she stopped mid sentence and took another look at Hunter. "Wait...I know you, you're Hunter!"

That only added to Hunter's confusion "You know who I am? That's...a first for me."

"Hey!" a yell from Pete drew their attention back to him. "You're not getting away this time girly! Heartless Squad! Round up!"

Several Shadows rose up from the ground and two Soldiers appeared. After a moment of standing there and jerkily moving like insects they advanced on the group.

Hunter cracked his knuckles and stepped forwards "Everyone keep back, I'll handle-"

There was a rush of air as the strange girl ran right past him. She gave her broom a twirl then used it like a baseball bat to smack away two Shadows that both disintegrated mid air. Now that she was in the middle of the Heartless pack she raised her broom and called down three lightning bolts from the sky, destroying more Shadows.

Not wanting to be left out Hunter dashed forwards and punched a Soldier right in its metallic face, sending it flying back "Oh, I like you." He ducked under a leaping Shadow then kicked it as it landed "You never told me your name!"

"Candy." the girl swung her broom again, hitting the other Soldier "Candy Witch!"

"You think of that all by yourself?" Candy called down another bolt that struck Hunter, then branched out to the remaining Shadows. "I deserved that." he croaked.

All the Heartless were gone now, leaving a very angry Pete, he huffed and jumped up and down a few times like a toddler having a tantrum "You...you..YOU!...Oh, when Maleficent gets back you two are gonna wish you'd never tangled with the Mighty Pete!" The wind went right out of his sails when he saw that no one was looking at him, they were all crowding around Candy.

"That was so cool." said Naruto, who apparently forgotten all about being hit on the head. "Are you a real witch? Can you fly on that broom? Ooo, are you from another world like Hunter?"

"Yes, yes and...yes. "Her eyes changed from white to a shade of purple. Apparently she didn't notice until she saw everyone else's expressions "Oh, erm yeah I tried to do a spell once to change my eye colour, but it didn't go exactly to plan, so now my eyes change like mood rings."

"I think they look pretty." said Sakura, in an unusually kind manner.

Hunter didn't look too pleased with someone else getting all the attention "Well, my eyes change too. So do my cloths and...gender...sometimes. Umm. Anyway you never did tell me how you knew my name."

Candy nodded emphatically "Yeah! Pikachu told me all about you and I heard Optimus Prime mention you're name once or twice."

"Just how many worlds have you been to?"

"Mmm, twenty or so. I love finding new worlds, the last one was great! Magic, a demon invasion oh and the cookies! To die for." there was a beep from behind her and she reached round, producing an iPad "Oh, Tzeentch just posted about you on Spacebook."

"What? Give me that!" Hunter snatched it from her and stated reading the open web page.

_MasterofPlans : So get this guys, some prick called Hunter just showed up in the warp and started poking me in the face. Total douche Amiright?_

_Grandpapa Nurgz : He hit your face? What a jerk._

_MasterofPlans : Indeed. I think he even bruised one of my many cheeks. Got my own back though. Sent him and his pet monkeys to Equestria. SEVEN MILES ABOVE EQUESTRIA! ROFL!_

"Grrrrr." Hunter started typing.

_Anonymous : I'm still alive you HP Lovecraft reject! The pain of a million ripped out nose hairs will seem like a tender massage compared to what I'll do to you!_

_Grandpapa Nurgz : Lol. Would pay to see that!_

_MasterofPlans : All according to plan! _

_IshaMe : Ah yes, that bigol' stupid 'plan' of yours._

_MasterofPlans : Yep. I've got it alllll figured out. Just a matter of waiting for things to fall into palace._

_420BlazeMy3601337Vagick: I'm horny. Are you Horny?_

_Anonymous : Um...what?_

_IshaMe :Oh bother, not this horrid wench again! Nurgle, dear, can you throw all diseases you've ever cooked up at this irredeemable penetration-addict!_

_420BlazeMy3601337Vagick: Oh I like it when you get angry. Gimmie your credit card info and you can see my free cam show =DDDD._

_Grandpapa Nurgz : That doesn't sound suspicious at all. sarcasm_

Hunter gave the iPad back to Candy "Annnnnd that just got too personal for me."

"Are you even listenin' over there!" Pete yelled at them.

Hunter gave a tired 'ugh' then looked over at Candy "Please tell me that you know teleport magic."

She smiled and gave a single nod "Yup."

"Then can you please get us back to the Elemental Nations. We've all had enough craziness today."

The four ninjas all nodded in agreement. Still smiling Candy raised her broom high into the air. Pete ran straight at them, hoping to catch them before they could leave. As soon as he was close enough he jumped at them in a flying rugby tackle but they vanished in a flash of light and he ended up smacking face down on the sidewalk.

"Grr. Darn it!" he cursed.

Just to the left a green hairy thing rose up out of a garbage can "Hery, will ya keep it down out there, I'm tryin' ta sleep here!"

_Back with Hunter and the others_

"This is NOT the Hidden Leaf Village!" exclaimed Sakura.

Candy hadn't teleported them back to the Leaf, they were now in a golden hallway lined with great works of art and towering warrior statures.

"I think we actually went backwards." Hunter muttered as he looked around.

"We'll I'd like to see you do better!" said Candy, defensively while her eyes changed to an angry red.

"I can. 'Cept I use dark portals. It'll kill this lot if they go through again."

Candy's eyes almost burst out of their sockets "You use dark portals unprotected! You know what that stuff does to you!?"

"Why does everyone keep going on about these portals" groaned Naruto "Hunter uses them all the time and he's fine."

"He's a Heartless, of course he's fine!" Candy blurted out, then she noticed the confused looks the ninjas were giving her and the uncomfortable look on Hunters face "They don't know do they?"

Kakashi figured it all out first "So...those things that that Pete guy summoned up...you're one of them?"

Hunter's shoulder slumped "It's ...more complicated than-"

And then something no one expected happened. With a loud thud three huge muscular half naked men appeared in front of them. They were all about nine feet tall wearing leather loincloths, greaves, cuffs, tall closed helmets and nothing else.

"Mmm, mmm, MMM. What do we have here?" asked the closest man, apparently the leader of the group. "Intruders in the Imperial palace. It's been a while since that's happened."

"This man be an opportunity." said the man on the left "It has been too long since we had a real work out."

"My oiled abs _quiver_ in anticipation." added the third man.

Everyone was just staring at them open mouthed, eyes bulging.

"I am seriously turned on right now." said Hunter, causing everyone to turn their disbelieving gaze on him "What?"

"Ok, I'll try again." said Candy as she raised her broom again.

"Wait? Wait! can't we jus-" Hunter's protest was cut short as the mismatched team was once again teleported away. Leaving three very disappointed Custodies behind.

"Drat. Ah well, let's get back to oiling our abs."

"You mean _eachothers_ abs, right?"

_The hidden Leaf village_

"It's no use." groaned Shikamaru. "We've been looking for hours and there's still no sign of them."

"Gezze, will you stop whining?" said Kiba.

After the disappearance of Hunter and all of Team Seven, Tsunade had ordered every ninja to scour the village with a fine toothcomb. That had been several hours ago and with no sign of any of them yet some were starting to lose hope.

"We'll find them...we have to." insisted Hinata, who hadn't so much as rested since the search began.

"How?" asked Shikamaru "It's not like they're just going to drop out of the sky!"

There was a loud thump as Naruto appeared out of thin air above him and landed on top of him, knocking them both to the ground. A second later Sakura warped into existence a short distance way and upside-down, landing on her head with an 'Oof!'. Then Kakashi, and Sasuke who was instantly set upon by Ino asking if he was hurt.

"Well that was fun."

All those present looked over at the voice they knew too well. "HUNTER!" they all yelled in

"Hi guys!" he smiled at them in a friendly manner.

"You!" he stopped smiling when he saw Tsunade, Jiriya and Shizune running to join the rookies. "Just what did you do to my genin!" she demanded.

"What about me?" Kakashi asked but she paid him no mind.

"They're alive aren't they?"

"Granny Tsunade!" the Hokage looked over at Naruto, while still keeping one eye on Hunter "You won't believe where we've been!"

"See, I got you all back in one piece." said Candy, proudly.

"Oh Kami, please tell me there's not another one." groaned Shizune.

"Don't worry, she's just leaving." said Hunter.

Candy rounded on him at once "No I'm not!"

Hunter tossed the Chaos Emerald at her and she caught it on reflex. She had just enough time shoot Hunter an angry look before she vanished in a flash of light.

"Hmmm, I have a feeling that one will come back to haunt me. Oh well." said Hunter "I'm going for some...R&amp;R."

"You're not going back to that world with the naked men are you?" Naruto deadpanned.

Hunter looked offended "You insult me sir! I have standards!" a black portal appeared behind him and two of the female daemons from before stepped out to stand one on each side of him. Both had purple skin, wide mouths with luscious lips pulled back over sharp teeth. The one on the left had a crab pincer in place of her left arm and both were wearing...very, very little clothing. "Horrible, horrible standards." he said as he draped an arm over the two of them and his tail sprouted out of his back. Everyone's eyes went comically wide. As they turned and walked into the portal everyone heard him say "So, ladies, have either of you ever heard of an 'Antivan Milk Sandwich'?" then he was gone.

"We don't want to know what he meant do we?" said Shizune.

"No we don't." agreed Tsunade, then she looked to her left and saw Jiriya scribbling notes furiously. Getting angry she seized him by his shirt and pulled him close so his face was inches from hers "No. We. Don't." she repeated with way more force.

"I'm just glad today's over." breathed Naruto.

_Somewhere between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning._

"I spy with my little eye.."

"Shut up Jirōbō!"

The Sound Four had been walking for hours now. They could have run this distance in less than half the time but no, their 'guest' insisted that they walk. None of them liked Twilight Thorn and that resentment was only increasing. The worst thing about him (one of the rare things they all agreed on) was his total lack of emotion. They'd all tried their hand at goading him into a fight so they could have an excuse to kill him but he either ignored them or gave them that 'look'. It was like being stared at by a statue. A creepy statue.

"We're here." the Nobody announced as they cleared the tree line.

"Finally!" said Tayuya.

They were now in a huge open meadow that was carpeted with wild flowers. The only man made structure in sight was a simple stone monolith in the middle of the grass, a monument to the fallen.

"I know this place." said Sakon. "This was one of the biggest battlegrounds of the third Shinobi war. They say that a flower grows here for every ninja that fell here."

Tayuya rolled her eyes "That's stupid. There are way too many flowers here for that to be true. Why are we even here?"

Thorn approached Jirōbō, who'd been carrying a large metal box ever since they'd left the base. He handed it over to Thorn, who walked a little further into the field before dropping it and opening the lid. "This was the largest battlefield I could find close to the Leaf." he said as he reached inside.

That was something else they hated about him "Would it kill you to give a straight answer?"

"And why did you drag all of us here?" asked Kidōmaru.

"I need them to chase you." Thorn pulled out a long, thin glowing purple crystal. Without warning he plunged it into the ground until half of it had sunk into the earth. As he took his hand away it started to move and wiggle, digging itself in deeper. When it finally disappeared underground there was a momentary pulse of purple light beneath the soil, then instantly every flower, tree and blade of grass wilted and died. In seconds the verdant meadow was a lifeless wasteland of cracked earth and twisted, gnarled trees.

"What...was that thing?" asked Sakon, echoing his comrades thoughts.

"A way to supplement our forces." replied Thorn. "Dark Energon. It reanimates the dead."

A skeletal hand burst up from the ground, clutching at the air. Then another, and another.

"Wh-what the!?" Tayuya almost screamed. Orochimaru's resurrection justu was bad enough, this was a whole new level of wrong.

"They won't notice me. Because I'm not real." Thorn kept talking as though nothing was happening, even as the dead rose up around him. "You. They'll follow you. Straight to the Leaf."

"You brought all four of us here...as bait!?" yelled Sakon.

"Yes. This way at least one of you will survive and lead them."

The four of them stared at him in horror for a few moments then as more corpses began to emerge then started running in the direction of the Hidden Leaf.

"Try not to get to far ahead!" Thorn yelled after them "I don't want too many wandering off!"

"Is he...what am I saying, of course he's serious." said Kidōmaru.

"I don't care what Orochimaru says. We kill him next chance we get! Agreed?!" asked a very angry Tayuya.

"Agreed!" the others chorused.

Thorn stayed for a while to retrieve the Dark Energon shard for later use. Then he opened a black portal back to the Hidden Sound base. He was instantly confronted by Kabuto in the dim artificial light of the underground hallway.

"I trust your mission was a success." Thorn didn't answer but Kabuto took that as a 'yes'. "Well, things have been going very well here. Kimimaro is responding very well to the gene therapy. Those alien cells are a medical miracle. He'll be at full strength in a matter of days."

"Orochimaru. Is he acclimatising to the power?" asked Thorn.

As if to answer his question the wall behind him was suddenly smashed in. Turning casually Thorn saw the Snake Sanin himself stepping out through the hole, admiring the wisps of Darkness coiling up from his arms.

"Magnificent." he said to himself, allowing his tongue to loll out in a snake like fashion. "This power changes everything. It's like I'm finally seeing the world for what it is."

"I remember that feeling." said Thorn "Savour it. It won't last. How are my replicas?"

Kabuto smiled in that creepy manner of his "Well, they just finished 'cooking' a few minutes ago. Take a look."

He stood aside, allowing an unobstructed view of the room behind him. On the far wall were three cylindrical glass pods lying open, their occupants staggering forwards, finding their feet and examining their surroundings.

Thorn briefly glanced over each of them before delivering his verdict "They'll do."

* * *

Well, thing are certainly heating up, aren't they.

I'd like to thank LanterLover23 for her support and letting me use her OC and the Alfa Legion and their TTS youtube series for all the 40k it's given me.

Candy Witch may appear again in the future and if anyone else has an idea for a OC (hero or villain) they want to see in this story I'd very much like to hear about it. Now, I can't promise they'll appear but I will do my best.

I'll be taking a short break from this story as I finish one of my other stories chapters and Hunter erm..._finishes_ with those daemonettes.

Next chapter, Thorn declares all out war on the Hidden Leaf, and with a undead horde, genetically enhanced soldiers and a Darkness powered Orochimaru at his side, can he be stopped? You'll just have to wait and see.


	17. Chapter 16

Here we are with Chapter sixteen, where thing start getting sinister and Thorn finally steps into the light. This won't end well.

Have fun!

* * *

Chapter 16

"Oh come on Riku!" Hunter pleaded as he was dragged along by the silver haired teen. The two of them were just leaving a castle that was made of living silk and entering a garden with lakes of what looked like wine (or blood, it was hard to tell) and trees that emitted all manner of exotic perfumes.

"Just five more minutes!" now Hunter was digging his claws into the ground, forcing Riku to really put his back into pulling him along.

"I think you've had quite enough 'rest' for the time being Hunter."

Several tired looking demonetts appeared in the doorway, waving goodbye. Hunter had just enough time to make a 'call me' sign before he was dragged through a dark portal. The nonsensical realm of the Warp was instantly replaced by the small square space of DiZs libratory.

"Hunter" speak of the devil "when I gave you your mission in the Elemental Nations I expected results. So far I have been less than impressed."

"A lot of things happened." Hunter protested as he got back up. "Hey Naminé." he gave the girl standing in the corner a smile and a cheerful wave.

She returned the smile then tilted her head to one side in confusion "Is that...lipstick?" Hunter blushed and wiped the lipstick smudge off his cheek.

"Hunter!"

He turned back to DiZ, who was getting more angry by the second. "I hadn't exactly had an easy time! Literally everyone I've met so far has tried to kill me!"

"I can't imagine why." Riku muttered just loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Hunter ignored him and carried on "I've been blown up several times, crushed, stabbed, sealed, attacked by my own blasted Nobody and...I got you're stupid info." He reached into his pocket and took out a small disk. "Copied direct from one of the Organisations ships." DiZ didn't apologise, he just raise his one visible eyebrow a little.

"You were on one of their ships?" Riku asked.

"Yeah. It was fun. They were building a Death Star." Hunter marched up to the collection of computer screens that took up the rooms right corner and-

"No! Hunter wait!" yelled DiZ and Riku together.

Too late, he put the disk in and after a seconds pause the lights al went out.

"I think it may have had a virus on it." said Hunter, sheepishly.

The screens came back to life suddenly and displaced a dancing red doodle creature singing in a loud and annoying voice.

"**DO YOU LIKE BUTTONS!? WELL HERE'S A LITTLE BUTTON!"**

"I can't shut it off!" DiZ yelled over the 'music'.

**"GIVE IT A PRESS AND IT SUBSCRIBE YOU TO MY CHANNEL!"**

"Looks like Nobodies have a sense of humour after all." said Riku.

**"NOT ONLY THAT BUT HERE'S A LITTLE SECRET!"**

Part of Hunter's memory kicked back in "Oh, I remember this. Naminé, cover your ears!" She did so, and just in time.

**"PRESSING THE BUTTON WILL LET YOU HAVE A RUB OF MY CHEST! RHUBB MA BOOOBIES! RUBB-**"

The rest was mercifully cut off when Riku yanked the plug out of it socket.

DiZ approached the now inactive computer and took the disk out "It will take time for me to purge the virus from the system. And Hunter" Hunter, who'd been trying to slip out unnoticed, stopped in his tracks and turned nervously to face DiZ. "I still want this information and since you've caused this trouble..."

"Oh, I'm not going to like this am I?"

_In the Hidden Leaf, Tsunade's office._

Tsunade had been a ninja for most of her life, in that time she'd been on more missions than she could count, fought in a world war, become the greatest medic nin on the planet but never in all her years had she heard a crazier story than what Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had just told her. Other worlds, a space ship battle, it all sounded like something from a fantasy. If it weren't for Kakashi backing them up she would have said they'd all gone mad. Apart from team seven and their teacher, the sensei's of all the other genin were present, along with Jiraiya and Shizune.

"And it definitely wasn't an illusion?" she asked.

Kakashi shook his head "No. I've been caught in plenty of genjutsus in my time. This was real, no question."

"Well, this does clear a few things up." said Jiraiya. "Hunter is a being from a whole other reality. It explains why nothing we've used against him has been effective and why his powers seem so impossible."

"That woman...Candy. She said he was ...heartless?" said Ino.

"_A _Hearltess." corrected Shizune "Like those things this Pete character summoned."

"One Hunter was bad enough, but a whole race of them. I don't like the sound of that." said Guy.

Naruto leaned back in his chair, not understanding why everyone was so worked up "Oh how bad could it be?"

"It's a total disaster!" Tsunade yelled, surprising Naruto so much he fell backwards off his chair. "Hunter has upset the balance of power in the world by his mere presence." she continued in a calmer voice "So far he hasn't inserted himself into the nations politics but what if he does? Nothing we, or anyone else has done has been able to stop him, hell, last night he absolutely trounced both the Hidden Clouds jinchuriki single handed. The nation that gains Hunters loyalty could very well become unstoppable." She paused for a moment to let the effect of her words sink in "And if there are more like him, then there's a greater chance of that happening."

"So what do we do?" asked Sasuke.

Tsunade laced her fingers together and closed her eyes in thought "Knowingly or not Hunter has become the single greatest threat to peace in our time." she opened her eyes again "And we have to destroy him."

_Back with Hunter_

"I hate this job." After ruining their computer system DiZ had ordered Hunter to go out into the worlds and find another system capable of decoding the Nobodies files. Seeing as how he didn't know where to start DiZ had 'kindly' given Hunter a list of suitable locations. He was currently at location one, the 'Walled City' which as the named suggests was a sprawling city divided up by three sixty meter high walls arranged in three rings.

Hunter was currently on top of the second inner wall, looking down at the city below and wondering how he should approach this situation. His train of thought was interrupted when a shadow fell over him, wiping out the evening light. He turned round and found himself face to face was an absolutely colossal humanoid. It was a head taller than the walls with no skin, just muscle and bone with great clouds of stem rolling off its body.

"...what in the ever-loving..." he began, then he noticed the creatures hand poised inches away. "Don't you dare!" the thing flicked him right off the wall. Hunter was sent shooting down with the force of a cannonball until he crashed into a house below, demolishing the structure entirely. By now he was very annoyed and it only got worse when as soon as he finished cleaning himself up he was hit by a hurricane force wind that messed up his hair and cloths again.

"GrrrrAAAARRRRGGGHHH!"

Several terrified screaming people ran past. He grabbed hold of one of them and asked "What's happening?"

The woman he was talking to was about thirty with brown hair and so afraid she could hardly think. "It's the Titans!" she screamed at him "T-they broke through the wall! They're going to eat us all!"

Hunter looked at her quizzically "...Titans?" then a shadow fell over both of them as the woman stared up in horror. Hunter turned and saw another huge humanoid looking down at them. It was way shorter than the last one, only nine meters high and also unlike the other titan, it had all its skin. It didn't look very intelligent though, its facial expression was something akin to a drunk and its head was a little too large for its body. It was also completely naked and had no genitals, like a giant malformed Ken doll.

"Well, that's not disturbing at all. So this thing is a Ti-" Hunter trailed off when he noticed that the woman was no longer listening as she was too busy having a breakdown."...ok, never mind." There was a loud thud as the giant reached down to grab them and Hunter caught hold of its hand. "Ya know, where I'm from it's considered rude to eat people!" he swung the monster round in a circle then launched it into the air before blasting it with several dark bolts. It disintegrated before it hit the ground.

"Ha! That's what you get for...for..." Hunter was cut short when he saw another Titan off in the distance, and another, and anther. As his supernatural vision expanded out it revealed more and more, like the city was infested. "... Chucklefucks. Annnnd now I've got to clean up this whole mess." With a single bound he launched himself twenty meters into the air, as a dark aura began to glow around his body he jammed out his arms and yelled "Dark! Bolt! STORM!"

_Back in the Hidden Leaf_

"Mmm! Delicious!" declared Naruto as he scoffed down his fourth bowl of ramen.

"Do you even bother chewing at all?" asked a dismayed Sakura.

Kakashi hummed in agreement. He was really starting to regret offering his team an 'all you can eat' lunch.

"We should be out looking for Hunter." said a sour Sasuke, who hadn't even touched his food yet.

"That would be pointless" Kakashi noted "he could be anywhere in the world. _Any_ world. And I can't believe I just said that."

"Yeah, this whole 'other realities' thing is...a lot to swallow." Said Sakura.

"I'm ok with it." said a cheery Naruto as he finished his bowl.

"I doubt you even understand it idiot!" Sakura shot back.

Kakashi sighed as he paid Ayame and Teuchi for the food and he and his genin left the ramen bar. The instant they stepped outside they all froze. Hunter was waiting for them, but he looked different. He wore a blue scarf and had an odd, blank expression.

"What the...Hunter!?" yelled Naruto in surprise.

'Hunter' didn't respond, he just cocked his head to one side.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, then charged right at him ignoring cries of warning from both his comrades and teacher. Instead of landing a blow as he intended however he passed right through him like he wasn't even there.

'A genjutsu!' he thought 'Ok, then where's the real-Ooof!'

The 'genjutsu's scarf suddenly came to life and seized hold of him, coiling round his body like snakes, trapping his arms.

"Sasuke!" with a cry Naruto leapt forwards to help his friend, only to have Sasuke thrown at him, the two ending up in a heap on the ground. "Aw come on Hunter, fight fair for once!"

"It's not Hunter." said Kakashi.

Naruto looked confused "But he is! Just look at him Kakashi-sensei!"

"_Listen_ to him Naruto! Hunter can't keep his mouth shut to save his life. This guy hasn't said a word yet!" Naruto looked back at Hunter and finally noticed that something was...different.

"Well if he's not Hunter then who is he!?" demanded Sasuke as he got back up.

"Thorn!" Everyone looked to the left to see Tsunade approaching, along with Jiraiya. With a swirl of leaves several ANBU ninjas appeared surrounding Thorn. "That's your name isn't it? 'Thorn'." Tsunade repeated.

Thorn didn't answer her.

"Hmm? Granny what's going on?" asked Naruto.

That was when more ninjas arrived, teams eight, ten and team Guy along with their sensei's. "That was fast." said Sakura.

"All the weird stuff that's happened lately has done wonders for our response time." said Shino.

"It's a total drag." groaned Shikamaru, who been in the middle of his mid-morning nap.

"Good, you're all here." said Tsunade "Well, to answer your question Naruto a few days ago team eight were perusing Hunter through the forest outside the village. They lost him but on their way back they encountered someone else who looked almost exactly like Hunter only he called himself 'Thorn'."

"Yeah, and he gave us one hell of a smack down too!" said Kiba "My bruises still have bruises!" Akamaru gave a bark of agreement.

"You obviously have a connection to Hunter." said Jiraiya "Are you a Heartless too?"

No answer.

"Hey...I recognise that symbol." said Sakura "It's the same one the nobodies had. That's what you are isn't it. You're a Nobody."

"Yes." finally Thorn spoke. He sounded almost like Hunter too, but his voice had a creepy lack of emotion. "You've done better than I expected. I didn't even have to give you the answer."

"Don't mock her!" Rock Lee spoke up in defence of his crush.

"I'm not." Thorn continued. "You still don't impress me though. 'Heartless', 'Nobody'. You know the words, but not the meaning. You understand nothing."

"Well then help us understand." said Ino "What do you want here? Why are you in our village."

"I think I know." Everyone looked at Neji. "He's here to steal Kekkei Genkai. That's why he raided the Hyūga clan archives. He's probably done the same in other villages to, or is planning to."

"Yes." Thorn replied, surprising everyone. "I crossed whole realities and put several vital missions on hold all to steal the genetic trait of a clan of inbred mutants." Neji clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger "In case you can't tell, that was me mocking you."

That was when Neji lost it. With a yell of anger he charged at Thorn, shooting past the ANBU ninjas before they could stop him. He was a moment away from landing a palm strike when he suddenly faltered and crashed into the ground, coming to rest at Thorn's feet, screaming and clutching his head in pain.

"What the?!" Naruto looked on in horror.

"I never discard useful information." Thorn looked down at Neji was an unnerving level of dispassion. "When I was in you archive I found out about your clans Caged Bird Seal. Learning how to activate it was easy."

An ANBU ninja leapt in and brought Neji back behind friendly lines over to Hinata. "Lady Hyūga, can you stop the seal?" he asked.

She nodded and made the hand sign her father had taught her. This was the first time she'd been grateful for her father teaching her about the seal. Neji stopped screaming but he still looked pained.

"Just what the hell do you want!?" demanded Naruto.

"What you have."

"Stop being so cryptic." said a very angry Tsunade "I've had enough of you and Hunter only giving us half answers. So here's what's going to happen here, I'm going to ask you some questions and you are going to give us a yes or no. If you don't then" she cracked her knuckles "we'll take you apart."

Thorn didn't say anything for a moment, but then he gave a single nod.

"Alright. Mizuki's disappearance. Was that you?"

"Yes."

Naruto looked confused. This was the first he'd heard of Mizuki since the day he'd beaten the basterd to a pulp so long ago.

"Is he alive?"

"No." Thorn noticed Tsunade wince "He'd already told me all he could. There was no reason to keep him alive. He would have been a" he gave Naruto a sideways glance "liability."

She mentally filed that look away for later "Ok, now what's your connection to Hunter? You look like you were printed from the same mould. Are you his brother?"

"It's complicated. We are more than kin. And less than kind."

That wasn't the answer Tsunade was looking for but there was something else she wanted to know "Alright next question. Over the past few months there have been some...odd occurrences. Strange people walking the streets then vanishing when followed. Are they yours?

"Yes. And I'm afraid that's all we have time for."

"You're not leaving." moving faster than the eye could see the ANBU ninjas appeared all around Thorn, trapping him in place with their swords. Then he just walked right through them like a ghost.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm done hiding in the shadows." Everyone got into combat stances, drawing various weapons and charging up their chakra. "Hunter made friends here. I've made friends too."

There was a blast of dark energy and the ANBU team were sent flying, then they disintegrated one by one as they fell. Tsunade's expression of anger turned to horror as the perpetrator stepped forwards, coils of dark power rolling off his body.

"Orochimaru." grunted Jiraiya.

The Snake Sanin was back, with his arms fully healed, that same evil grin plastered on his face. "Well, hello old friends. So good to see you all again. And so soon after our last encounter to. Isn't it grand?"

"Oh no, not him again." Sakura still hadn't gotten over the last time she and her friends had run into the creepy snake man in the Forrest of Death.

"Hmhmhm. You really should try this Dark Power Tsunade. It does wonders for your health." Orochimaru conjured a ball of darkness in his hand so everyone could see.

'That's the same power Hunter has!' Tsunade thought with mounting panic. 'If he's become anywhere near as strong...'

BOOM!

Her train of thought was interrupted by an explosion off in the distance.

"And now the time has come to finish what I set out to do so long ago." the snake sanin continued. "The destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

"I don't bloody believe it!" that was a voice everyone recognised. They turned round and sure enough, standing on top of a building above them was Hunter.

_Roughly an hour ago, with Hunter_

"Those ungrateful, pig-headed, trigger-happy, TWATS!" he ranted to himself. Once he'd blasted away all the Titans (well, most of them) instead of the overwhelming gratitude he'd been expecting the locals had decided to shove a bunch of cannons in his face. Things got worse when he insulted most of the senior officers and asked this girl called Mikasa if she was single. She'd instantly tried to cut him in half and he had to admit the look on her face when her swords shattered was hilarious. After laughing off everything else they could throw at him he'd told them to go 'plug that hole in the wall', given them all a two fingered salute then teleported away.

Now he was on another world in the middle of the ocean. He'd soon found that he could, surprise, walk on water, and that if he got up enough momentum he could skate along at very high speeds. He was currently on course for the nearest collection of Hearts he could detect, hoping that he would find civilisation, preferably advanced civilisation.

He stopped just a few miles off shore when he could have sworn he heard something like thunder or fireworks going off, then there was a whistling sound and...

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

"Snap!" Hunter was nearly blown out of the water as several explosions went off around him. "What the...What. The. Snap?" What Hunter was seeing right now just wasn't making sense to him. Several people were charging towards him, skating across the water much like he'd been doing but that wasn't what bothered him, nor was it the fact that they were all female. What he was having trouble accepting was that they were wearing ships, or parts of ships like battle armour.

"What manner of lunacy is-" BOOM "OUCH!" he took a cannon shot to the face. Several miniature World War Two fighter planes started flying round him like hornets, shooting him with tinny bullets and occasionally dropping bombs. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Who the hell is flying you anyway?!" He jumped up and grabbed one of the planes out of the air and looked inside the cotpit. Inside was a tiny anime fairy, and she didn't look too pleased. He saw he hands moving on the planes controls and guessed what she was going to do next."No." too late, she opened fire, unloading her mini machine guns right into Hunter's face.

He chucked the place away "The Warp made more sense than this place! OW!" another cannon blast hit him in the chest, followed by several torpedoes. "Will you all STOP SHOOTING ME!" finally having had enough Hunter dashed forwards, tripping up one girl, leaping over another. He passed between two who tried to shoot him but he dropped into a skid at the last moment and they ended up hitting each other. "Ha!" he said while looking back over his shoulder "That's what you get for-" SMACK.

One girl had gotten in front of him while he wasn't looking and punched him in the face. Hunter was flipped backwards but his forward momentum kept him going. He skipped across the water, coming to rest in front of another girl, the most heavily arm of the bunch having six triple gun turrets and a...parasol.

"Alright lady, give me your best shot!" Hunter challenged without thinking. At once all six of her guns turned to aim at him. "Why did I say that? Why in the hell did I say that?"

BADDOOOM!

Hunter sank right to the bottom of the ocean and sat there as several curious fish swam past "I think DiZ is trolling me."

_Sometime later_

"I can fix this!" Hunter insisted franticly.

He was now in world number three and things were going about as well as you'd expect. First he'd appeared in the middle of an off limits military base and when he'd refused to leave the guards had tried to arrest him. This had of course lead to a fight in which Hunter had been shot at with guns and mortars. Once they realised that wasn't working on him they'd retreated and called for the 'Alchemists'. That was when things had gotten weird.

The Alchemists as it turned out were people in this world who had their own brand of magic. They were powerful and driven but they weren't prepare for an enemy with 'real' magic and almost total invulnerability. One at a time Hunter had caught them all in blizzard spells, imprisoning them in ice up to their necks. Well, all save one. The last alchemist was unusual, a young disembodied spirit possessing a suit of armour. Hunter had tried to use a screwdriver to tighten up his bolts and prevent him from moving but he'd gotten his lefts and rights mixed up and had taken the poor boy apart.

"I _can_ fix this!" he repeated as he rapidly tried to put the armour back together. The arrangement of limbs was completely wrong, making the armour look like a metal spider. Hunter scratched his head and tried again. This time he got the arms and legs in the wrong sockets. "Aw, I'm great at taking things apart, why can't I put them back together?" he moaned. He turned to look at one of the alchemists, a short (did it just get colder in here?) blond man in his twenties who had a mechanical arm and leg. "Do you have computers in this world?" he asked.

The alchemist blinked a few times "Com-what? What the hell are you talking about you raving...?" that was when he noticed that Hunter was no longer listening, he was looking at the ground and clenching his fists. "Hey! Are you even listening to me man!?"

Hunter threw back his head and yelled "FFFFFFFFUUUUU-"

_Several minutes later_

"Why didn't I just do this in the first place, why, why, why WHY!?" After throwing a colossal tantrum and breaking part of the city he'd been in Hunter had left and jumped through as many worlds as he could until he found somewhere that had a decent level of technology. He didn't know where he was as the room he was in had no windows, just banks of modern computers in seemingly never-ending rows. The actual decoding was going very slowly for a number of reasons but the main one was that the Nobodies data disk was both more advance than the machines decoding it and it was from a whole other reality. It was basically like trying to run Crysis on the Enigma Machine.

"Grrr this is taking forever!" the progress bar on the screen in front of him reached three percent. "Right, screw it. I'm going to have some fun."

Leaving the machines to do their work Hunter portaled out to the Hidden Leaf, already planning a series of malicious pranks. That plan died the instant he arrived. "Oh snap." It was instantly obvious that the village was under attack. Again. Most of the buildings around him were either on fire, wrecked or both. Several Leaf ninjas were clashing with Sound ninjas and they were losing badly.

"Not good." Hunter dashed forwards, running over every Sound ninjas he came across as he homed in on a group of familiar Hearts. He stopped on top of a building overlooking a large group of people. All of the genin plus Kureni, Guy, Asuma and Kakashi were there along with Jiraiya and Tsunade. "I don't bloody believe it!" he declared as he arrived. Clearly a lot had gone on since he was last here.

"You're fighting someone else ON THE SIDE!" he continued melodramatically as he jumped down to ground level "Oh, and it would be with the snake man wouldn't it. What does _he_ have that I...oh no." That's when Hunter got a good look at Orochimaru's Heart and he saw what had changed. "What have you done?"

"Oh come now Hunter." the Snake Sanin seemingly forgot about Jiraiya and Tsunade as he turned to face him. "Did you really think that you would always be the only one with this power?"

"You idiot." Orochimaru's smile faltered a tad "You absolute idiot! What the hell were you thinking! Do you have any idea what you've done to yourself!? And you." Hunter turned his gaze on Thorn "Why in the hell would you do something like this, you know what Darkness does to people Twilight!"

Ino gave a loud snicker "Your first name is Twilight? Pfffthaha!" several other had a chuckle as well.

Thorn glanced at her "Ino means Boar." that shut her up. With Ino dealt with he turned back to his twin "I have my reasons. What are yours?" with that Thorn vanished into a dark portal. Realising that he was now heavily outnumbered Orochimaru created his own portal, giving his former teammates a baleful look before disappearing.

"Oh no you don't!" Hunter lunged after him but the portal faded before he could reach it and he ended up crashing face first into the ground. "God dammit!"

"Well... when I woke up this morning I certainly didn't imagine this would happen." said Jiraiya.

"I never thought Thorn would go this far." Hunter muttered more to himself than anyone else. "What Darkness turned me...him...US into. What the hell is he thinking?"

"Hunter!" he looked up at Tsunade "I have had enough of you, Thorn and all of this craziness. So you are going to tell me exactly what is going on right NOW!"

"No." was his blunt reply.

Tsunade clenched her fists and started turning red in the face. Jiraiya started backing away, remembering painfully the last timer she'd gotten this mad. "What do you mean 'no'?" she hissed.

Hunter crossed his arms "I don't owe you any explanation. All I've done so far is save you backsides and in return you lot have tried to kill me."

"Save us!" Kiba almost burst out laughing "You're joking right? For all we know you caused all this!"

Hunter looked genuinely angry "Hey, I followed Thorn here. Not the other way round! This would have happened with or without me. Now do you want my help _again_ or not?"

Tsunade looked like she was about to say no but then she let out a defeated sigh. "Alright...fine."

"Good, now the first order of business." Hunter closed his eyes and focused for a moment, then a green copy of himself stepped out of his body, much to everyone's surprise. "Alright, I need you to support these idiots while I hunt down Thorn and Orochimaru, got it."

Green didn't look too happy. "You can't fight them both at once man."

Hunter shrugged "Well I can but try. Here, take this." He threw something small to his clone, then departed.

"He's leaving!?" said Sakura in alarm.

"I'm right here." said Green "Fortunately for you lot I can be in two places at once." he looked out into the Village, scanning the area with his Heartless vision "Alright, he's what I see. There's two...make that three...people. There're made out of Data."

"Data?" Tsunade repeated.

"I...can't get a good read on them, they don't have Hearts but...I think they're leading the invasion."

Tsunade nodded. "Alright where are they." Hunter pointed in the direction of each of them. "OK, Asuma, you and your team go west, Kakashi and team seven will go north, Team eight and Kurenai that leaves you with the north-eastern commander."

"Hang on!" Everyone looked back at Green. "Something's happening on the east side."

_On the villages eastern wall_

"Pull back!" yelled one of the Leaf ninjas guarding the wall "Watch out for any-!"

"Fira!"

Part of the wall exploded into flames, consuming two people and sending another tumbling towards the ground. The three survivors turned in the direction of the voice and saw Thorn walking along the wall towards them. Two of them charged at him, kunai drawn and ready but Thorn easily dodged them buy unnaturally twisting his body. He grabbed one man's arm then kicked him in the knee, breaking his leg. He then delivered a chop to his throat, crushing his windpipe before throwing his body off the wall. The other man didn't last much longer, with a flick of his wrist Thorn sliced him in half with a jagged Tendril of Darkness.

The third and final ninja tried to run but he was blasted by a Dark bolt from Orochimaru before he could take more than two steps.

"Not bad." said Kabuto, who'd only just joined them after giving Thorn's commander their orders.

Thorn said nothing, he just looked out over the wall at the forest beyond. After about a second four blurs shot out from the trees and landed beside him. The Sound Four had arrived.

"You...absolute ...basterd!" panted Tayuya.

"Well,...at least we...phew, get to bust some heads now." said an equally tired Kidōmaru.

"No. You're all too tired. Go back to base and rest." Before any of them could protest Thorn opened up a large portal beneath them and they all fell in with startled cries and curses.

"They are definitely going to kill you for that." said Kabuto as the portal closed.

Thorn ignored him again and opened a large portal for the approaching un-dead horde, with the exit portal located inside the village itself.

_Back with Green Hunter and the others_

"Zombies." said Sakura, hoping she'd heard wrong. "He has a horde of _zombies_!"

Green shot her an annoyed look "That's what I said! Hunter's already heading that way, he'll handle Thorn and the snake man, that just leaves you the zombies."

"My team and I can handle them!" said Guy with his trademark grin.

Green nodded in agreement "Ok. These zombies were made by dark magic, not a virus. That means you won't turn into one if you get bit, but they are harder to kill. You'll have to hack them to pieces, the smaller the better."

Tenten smiled and unsealed a windmill shuriken from one of her scrolls "Not a problem."

With their assignments given the teams all departed, leaving only Jiraiya, Tsunade and Green.

"Tsunade, this battle isn't going to go well for us." said Jiraiya. "We haven't fully recovered from the last attack, and even with Hunter's help we're going to lose a lot of people."

Tsunade grimaced.

"Don't worry." said Green with a smile as he held up the summon charm the original had given him "I have a plan."

_With Asuma and Team Ten._

"So where's our target?" asked Ino as she and the other arrived at their destination.

As if to answer her several nearby houses exploded into flames as several Sound ninjas appeared along with-

"There they are THERE! Go kill them all! *hurr* Burn their base! BURN IT! Plant the flag of chaos!" The commander was a giant of a man, roughly seven feet tall, but the power armour he was wearing made him closer to eight. His face was pale with white pupilless eyes, dark pulsing veins and a mouth full of sharpened teeth. His only weapon was a sword that was nearly as long as it's wielder was tall. It was covered in weird runes and emitted a faint purple glow.

"Well, this guy's...different." said Shikamaru.

"ATTTACCKKK!"

_Over with Team Eight_

"Fang over fang!" Kiba and Akamaru slammed into the sound ninja ranks, followed by Shino and Hinata.

"Wow! This is great!" declared Kiba as he dodge a sound ninjas counter attack, then the man was swarmed by Shino's bugs.

"Stay focused Kiba!" Kurenai scolded "We're here to eliminate a target, not fight a protracted battle."

"Do we know what we're looking for?" asked Hinata.

Kiba ran towards another group of Sound ninjas but was blasted back by some invisible force. The enemy nin started to pull back as a solitary black robed figure walked towards the genin and their sensei.

"I think I found him." groaned Kiba.

The figure took off their robe, revealing themselves to be a woman. She was tall and thin with pale skin and a bald head, yet she had a strange beauty that you could only get by being pure evil.

"This is all that stands in my way. I'm insulted." she said in a malice laden voice.

"You must be the commander." said Kurenai "Whoever you are, you've made a grave mistake attacking this village."

"Hm hm hm. My name is Asajj Ventress. And you" she took her two lightsabers off her belt and activated them, the twin red blades illuminating her in their ominous glow "you are all dead."

_With Team Seven_

"Well this guy wasn't hard to find." said Kakashi.

The four of them were standing at one end of a street, and a short distance away were a group of Sound ninjas lead by what could only be described as a nightmare. It had the shape of a man but was much taller, clad in a combination of black robes and dark metal armour. On its head it wore a crown/helmet and its face was completely obscured by an impenetrable darkness. In one hand it held a sword, and in the other a large flail.

"Is this all that you can muster against me?" it had a cold, rasping voice that held an unnatural quality. It set Naruto's teeth on edge.

"For scum like you, we're all it takes." said Sasuke.

The creature adjusted his grip on his sword, then made a motion to his subordinates. Without a word they retreated as the Witch King advanced "I will break you."

_Over to Team Guy_

"EAT THIS!" yelled Tenten as she unsealed and threw every weapon she had at the ravening horde. So far her and her team were having the 'easiest' time because while the un-dead were unsettling they were poor opponents. Guy and Lee were taking them apart with their taijutsu skills, braking bones with every kick and punch. Neji was having the hardest time, apparently the Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist style didn't work too well against non-living targets.

"This was terrible." said Guy as the last zombie fell. "I can't believe anyone would defile the dead like this. Most un-youthful."

"This is why I plan on being cremated." muttered Tenten as she twirled a kunai round her finger.

"We have company!" warned Neji. Thorn, Kabuto and Orochimaru appeared. They stopped a few feet away as the two groups faced off in a scene straight out of a spaghetti western.

"You go on ahead." said Thorn. "I'll handle them." the two ninjas left, leaving the Nobody behind.

"Four against one. If I didn't know better I'd say you were overconfident." said Guy.

"Ignorant fools. Fira!" Thorn threw a fireball, forcing the group to disperse.

Lee went in first, quickly closing in of Thorn and attacking with a cry of "Leaf Hurricane!" His kick passed right through Thorn, who kicked Lee in the back when he landed. Tenten pulled out a scroll and unsealed every weapon inside it at once, sending them hurtling towards Thorn. This barrage was about as effective as Lee's attack, worse actually because a lot of the projectiles nearly hit Lee.

"Sorry!" Tenten yelled apologetically.

Guy and Neji tried to launch a duel pronged attack but Thorn was ready for them. "Magnega." Thorns spell created a ball of energy that pulled the ninjas towards it, smashing them together before dissipating and leaving them in a heap.

"This isn't going well." said Neji.

"I'm more powerful than you." They looked up and saw Thorn was now standing right in front of them. Instantly Guy was up and pulling back his arm for a punch.

"Gravira." another ball of energy appeared, only this one altered the gravity around it making everything much heavier. Neji and Tenten were instantly floored, while Guy and Lee lost their super speed. Thorn raised his arm as Dark Tendrils began to coil around it. "Die now."

"Thundra!" Thorn was forced to jump back was a lightning bolt struck the ground where he'd been standing. "I'm not gone five seconds and you need me." said hunter and he dropped down next to Team Guy. The gravity spell ended and the ninjas all got back up.

"Perfect timing Hunter." said Tenten. Neji managed a quiet and unhappy 'mm-hum'.

"You guys go finish off the zombies. The Tin Man here is all mine."

Guy gave him a thumbs up saying "Show him the Power of Youth." before he and his team departed.

Hunter looked at Thorn with a sad expression "Why, why are you doing all this? I don't get ...me and you were...are the same person so how can you hurt all these people?"

Thorn shrugged "I don't have a Heart. I'm incapable of regret."

"It's dosn't have to be liek this." Hunter pleaded "You can stop this."

"So can you. One snap of your fingers and you can bring in enough Heartless to save this village. After that you can use them as an army to end all war in this world. Only that didn't work out too well the last time, did it?"

Hunter looked confused "What the hell are you talking about?"

Thorn didn't reply, he just drew a data card from his sleeve and threw it to the ground. It started to glow then began assembling a person out of data blocks. This data copy was a man with silver hair, blue eyes and one black angle wing sprouting from the right side of his back.

"Oh snap."

"Data Sephiroth. Terminate." On Thorn's order the Data copy came to life. Faster than the eye could track it shot towards Hunter and with a single swing of its oversized Masamune sword launched him high into the air before flying up after him.

Thorn watched for a moment, then continued on to his own objective.

_Over with Tsunade and Jiraiya_

"You're dead Sanin!" yelled a sound ninja as he attacked Jiraiya. This was a monumentally stupid move as the old man simply dodged him and delivered a crippling chop to the back of the ninjas neck.

"Thorn may have upgraded your bodies, but you goons are all still tenth rate." he said as he observed the pile of defeated Sound Ninjas behind him.

A short way away Tsunade punched her last opponent through a wall with one hand while using the other to break another ninjas arm before knocking him out. "They may be twice as strong but they're burning out twice as fast."

"A minor flaw." The two of them looked up and saw their former teammate emerge from a black portal "The next batch will be far superior."

"And I suppose your new friend told you that." Tsunade smiled smugly "Yeah, he seems really trustworthy."

Orochimaru let out en evil cackle "Hahahah! Do you really think I trust that empty freak!? Hahaha! The only reason I aligned with him was the power. This power!" He held up his arm, showing of the dark aura coiling around it. "With this Darkness, all my goals are within reach! All the justu in the world...why have that when I can have the knowledge of EVERY world!"

"You're just as insane as ever." said Jiraiya. "Alright Orochimaru, dark power on not you are not leaving this village alive."

Orochimaru gave a chilling smile, then attacked, thrusting out his arm and launching three snakes from under his sleeve at Jiraiya. The old hermit dodged, then suddenly Orochimaru was next to him, kicking him in the stomach. Jiraiya was thrown back, crashing into a wall. Tsunade was stunned, Orochimaru had never been that fast before. She hit him with three of her super punches, one in the head and two in the chest. This should have broken every bone in his body, instead her 'super strength' barely did more than a normal punch. Orochimaru laughed hit back with a Darkness enhanced punch to her head that knocked her sideways followed by an uppercut to her stomach.

Jiraiya got back up and started making hand signs. With a puff of smoke four Shadow Clones appeared and as one they charged at Orochimaru. As they closed in the each began preparing a Rasengan orb in their hands.

"Reflect." They all hit a barrier of translucent hexagons that sprang up around Orochimaru. The snake sanin smiled at Jiraiya's stunned expression. "Impressive isn't it. It doesn't just stop attacks of course, it throws them right back!" Before he could move Jiraiya was caught in the shields explosion. The clones were all wiped out, while the original was blasted back several meters.

Tsunade had been caught in the blast to, but she had fared better than Jiraiya. She threw another punch but Orochimaru dodge her by leaping back, then he fired four dark bolts that grazed her arms and legs, forcing her to drop to one knee in pain. Before she could get back up he marched up to her, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet.

"Pathetic. You are all so beneath me now." he started to choke the life out of her. "Don't worry Tsunade. A least now you'll be able to see you lover and brother aga-arrck!"

Suddenly he dropped Tsunade. After rubbing her throat and looking up she instantly knew why. Two green spikes were protruding from his chest. The two sanin looked over to see Green Hunter standing beside them. He'd impaled Orochimaru on his tail.

"You lose this round." said Green, calmly as he pulled his tail free. Orochimaru staggered back, clutching at his chest in pain.

"You...there are...two!?" he rasped.

"Yeah, you ninjas aren't the only ones who can clone yourselves." Green cast a cure spell on Tsunade, then went over to help Jiraiya up.

"It...this is meaningless!" Orochimaru continued "My forces are...all over this village...with their power, they will-"

"Fail!" Green finished. "Thorn tricked you, you idiot. Asajj Ventress, Firavious Carron, The Witch King. Do you know what they all have in common? They all lost! That's what those copies out there are made from. No matter how strong Thorn made them they will always fail because that's what they're based on!"

_With Team Ten_

"YOU WILL PAY IN BLOOOOOOD!"

"Shit!" Ino swore as she ducked under Carron's sword. She, her teammates and sensei had been hitting him with everything they had but he was just shrugging it off. Trying to take over his mind had gone badly for her because his mind was just a mess and Shikamaru's Shadow Possession hadn't worked either because he was too strong for the justsu to work.

The worst thing though was-

"SMITE THE KHOOOORNE! Smite them MY GOD! We...we will be your FIST. And we shall take them by the THROAT! Yes! YES WE WILL!"

"Are you ever going to shut up!" yelled Shikamaru. This only attracted Carron's ire as the deranged replica kicked the boy square in the stomach, sending him flying back. He hit the ground hard, then was pulled out of the way by Asuma just before Carron could stab him while he was down.

"Taste the full power of chaos! Taste my magic and beg for MERCY!"

"Expansion Justsu!" Choji ballooned in size and started spinning on the spot. Once he had enough speed he launched himself at Carron, staggering the Chaos Lord.

"Gahhh! YOU WILL PAY!"

"This isn't work-woah!" Ino was cut off when Carron grabbed her leg and hoisted her up into the air.

"Ino!" cried a horrified Asuma.

Carron took aim with his blade "The sound of your DOOM shall ring in you skull! In your soul! And yours shall be the cries of-!"

BEEP BEEP!

Carron turned and was instantly run over by a large red truck that appeared out of nowhere. He dropped Ino, who was sent sprawling but considering how she was nearly eviscerated she couldn't complain.

"What the hell?" said a stunned Choji. His amazement grew when the truck transformed, becoming a humanoid warrior.

"You've picked the wrong planet." said Optimus Prime as Carron got back up.

"Our enemies hide in MHETAL BAWKSES! The COWARDS! The FOOLS!" Carron raised his blade high and charged at the robot. At the same time Prime unfolded his energon axe and ran to meet the deranged warrior. Prime and Carron locked weapons, both struggling for supremacy.

"No...We cannot lose, we cannot die! HOW CAN WE!?" then Carron's blade shattered and Prime's axe swept through his body, cleaving it in two. There was no blood, Carron's left side disintegrated into data with more data block flickering around his wound.

"B...bawkses." then the rest of him vanished.

Prime walked over to Team Ten "Are you alright?"

"Um...yeah." Asuma managed to say. "Er...not to be rude but, who are you?"

"My name is Optimus Prime. I was summoned here by Hunter to help protect this village." He put away his axe and brought out a blaster rifle. "We should move and finish off the enemies remaining forces. Roll Out!" then he ran off towards the sound of battle.

"Well, you heard him." said Asuma as he took out a new cigarette.

Shikamaru shot him a incredulous look "What? We took down our target. Mission accomplished already."

"The missions isn't accomplished until the last of these pricks are out of our village, now come on!"

Realising that he couldn't sit this out Shikamaru gave a sigh of "What a drag." before following his team.

_Over with Team Eight_

"Hinata watch out!" screamed Kurenai. The Hyūga heiress just barely dodged Ventress' blade, then was blasted back by a force push.

Team eight was not winning this fight. They'd quickly found out that Ventress' lightsabers could cut through just about anything, which made attacking a nightmare and defending outright impossible. Aside from her skill with her main weapons she also had telekinetic abilities that unlike jutsu didn't require hand signs to work. Genjutsu wasn't working either, probably because the replica wasn't a real person. All this combined to make one hell of a shinobi killer.

Ventress took another few swings at Hinata, then sensing Kiba about to attack from behind she spun on the spot and kicked him in the stomach as he leapt at her, winding him and knocking him back. Kiba was about to get up, only to find the tip of a lightsaber pointed directly at his face. Ventress gave him a sadistic smile, then prepared to deliver the killing blow. Just before she could strike Kurenai sent her staggering back with a kick to the face.

"Any time now Shino!"

Ventress looked over at the young bug tamer, who was down on one knee at the edge of the fight. "It's done!" he announced.

Ventress looked down a saw a horde of tinny beetles swarming up her legs.

"We've got you now!" yelled Kiba. His elation waned when he noticed Ventress was still smiling. She fouled her arms across her chest then flung them out, creating a huge force shockwave that blasted back the insects and the ninjas in one go.

Hinata bolted back up, and immediately wished she hadn't. Ventress was right in front of her and she was now holding her lightsabers in a 'scissor' formation, ready to cut Hinata's head off. "How pathetic." she said with a sneer.

"FOOURRR!" Ventress looked up just in time to see a candy stripped broomstick hit her smack in the face. "Wow you have a hard head! I think I nearly broke my broom." said Candy Witch as she helped Hinata up.

All the members of team eight blinked a few times (including Shino but no one saw that because of his sunglasses), unable to fully accept the strange girl who'd literally appeared out of thin air.

"Hi there, I'm Candy." she said, pre-empting their questions "Hunter called, said you needed a hand here. Wow, I love you're world It's so awesome. You know this is the twentieth I've been to?"

"Hellllo." greeted an overeager Kiba.

Kurenai gave him stern look "Down boy."

"You!" They all looked over at the Ventress copy, who had gotten back up and was looking extremely pissed. "You will pay for that!"

Candy gave her her best 'Oh really' look. "You're going to 'make me pay'? You're a half assed copy of a wannabe sith lord!"

With a cry of rage Ventress charge forwards, bringing both blades down on Candy, who blocked her with her broom, then she levered the sith clone to her left and kicked her in the face. Ventress was stunned. She was a sith warrior, how could a little girl have laid a hand on her? Focusing her rage she launched another attack but Candy was able to block or dodge every swing of her lightsabers with ease, even avoiding her force blasts.

"Wow." breathed Hinata "She's incredible."

"Yeah." said Kiba in a dreamlike voice as he stared at Candy's chest "Real incredible." WHACK "OUCH!" Kurenai hit him on the head.

Ventress took two hits from Candy, staggering back in shock "How...I am Sith, how can I lose to you!?" she demanded.

"Well, you're not the first Sith I've fought. You guys do get kinda predictable after a while." Candy admitted "Course there is one other thing."

"And what's that!?" Ventress almost pleaded "Please I need to know. Tell me TELL ME NOW!"

Her rage returning she charge at Candy again. This time the young witch swung her broom in a circle and in an instant the gently wind turned into a gale, starting at Candy and blowing right at Ventress. The replica took two more steppes, then had to jam her blades into the ground to keep from getting blown away. She struggled to look up and through the wind she saw Candy holding her broom, charging it with lightning magic.

"You have no Heart!" Candy yelled at her, then she spun on the spot and swung her broom like it was a baseball bat. At the end of her swing a bolt of lightning burst from the broom's tip and blasted Ventress. She instantly let go of her blades and flew back, breaking up into blocks of data as she went before finally disappearing altogether.

"And good riddance." said Candy, wiping some dust of her skirt. She looked over at team eight, who were just staring at her open mouthed "Well, don't just stand there, we've still got work to do! Now where's that Hunter gotten to anyway? I've got a score to settle with him."

_Over to team seven_

"Rasengan!"

"Chidori!"

Naruto and Sasuke both hit the Witch King simultaneously but their attacks did little more than annoy him. He swung his flail, forcing the two of them back. Kakashi dived in, placing an explosive seal on the huge man's chest. It exploded but still didn't stop him.

"Fools! No man can kill me!"

Kakashi's eye widened in realisation. "Naruto! Hold him still!"

"Ok Kakashi-sensei! Multi-Shadowclone Jutsu!" At once twenty Naruto clones appeared on the Witch King struggling to hold him in place.

"Sakura!"

The pink haired kunoichi nodded in understanding. Readying a kunai she ran headlong at the restrained Witch King. Seeing her approach the Nazgûl managed to pull his sword arm free and as Sakura leapt toward him he lashed out, planning to stab her. At the last moment she made a hand sign and when the blade struck 'Sakura' vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log. That's when the real Sakura dropped down from above. The Witch King looked up just in time to see the kunai get plunged into his face. The shadow clones all dispelled and as team seven looked on the Witch King copy dropped to its knees and began to disintegrate.

He pointed at Naruto and said "Ile ianta a' du." before finally breaking up into data blocks.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." said Sasuke, sounding almost disappointed.

Sakura looked over at her teacher "Kakashi-sensei, how did I..."

He looked down at her with his trademark eye smile "Well, he said it himself. No man could kill him. So I figured..." he trailed off, letting his students work the rest out for themselves.

Naruto was of course the last to put two and two together. "HAHAH! I can't believe he was dumb enough to yell out his weakness liken that! What an idiot!" The rest of team seven all sweat dropped.

Their victory was cut short when with a crash Hunter fell right out of the sky , landing a few feet from them. He was followed by a strange man with one angel wing who fell right on top of him, impaling him through the stomach with a sword.

"Hunter! Are you alright!?" cried a worried Naruto.

Hunter shot him an irritated look "DO I BLOODY LOOK ALRIGHT! Oh shit!" Sephiroth lifted him up, then swung his sword left, throwing Hunter off and into the side of a building that partially collapsed on him. He raised his free hand and created a large ball of dark energy and threw it at where Hunter was buried, reducing it to rubble. He turned to face team seven, pulling his sword back for a Flash strike when Hunter burst out from the rubble and hit him with a flying rugby tackle. "You may look like Sephiroth." he pulled back his arm and created a dark bolt "But you're nothing but a pile of zeros and ones! Black Rasengan!" he slammed the bolt into the copies chest, through its body and out the other side. The clone lingered for a moment, then it deleted.

Hunter dropped to his knees, utterly exhausted. As team seven drew closer they got their first look at how much damage had been done to him. In addition to the hole in his chest Hunter had several puncture wounds all over his body along with sections that had broken off giving him the appearance of a damaged porcelain doll. All these injuries were leaking out Darkness like it was blood.

Slowly the wounds closed and Hunter got unsteadily to his feet. "That...really, really hurt. Ow."

"Are you ok?" asked Kakashi again.

"No, but I'll live. Now let's...oh no." Hunter's attention was caught by something off in the distance. The others tried to follow his gaze but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Oh please god no."

_Back to the fight with Orochimaru._

Orochimaru hadn't said anything for a while, he just stood there as his unnatural healing factor closed his chest wound for him. Then all at once he started laughing "HahahhaHAHAHAHA! I don't need Thorn or his little pets! I have the power I need in my very hands!"

Green Hunter's eyes widened "NO DON'T!"

Too late. Orochimaru gave in to his new Dark Power and let it consume him. At once he was enveloped by a massive dark aura that exploded outwards, throwing back Green, Tsunade and Jiraiya. When they got back up, Orochimaru was gone, and in his place was a Heartless. An absolutely massive Heartless that took the form of a giant white snake with five heads. In place of fangs each head had the same jagged mouth common to most Heartless, along with the glowing yellow eyes and the Heartless symbol on the top of each head.

"W-what is that thing!" stammered Tsunade. "Did Orochimaru summon it? Where is he?"

"That IS Orochimaru." Both she and Jiraiya looked at Green with disbelief. "That's was happens when you use Darkness too much."

Jiraiya looked back at the towering hydra "Orochimaru...now the man reflects the monster."

Hunter appeared, running over next to them along with Team Seven. "God, he really did it!" he groaned. Teams eight and Ten arrived along with Candy and Optimus.

"That is one...big Heartless." said Candy.

"All of you listen." everyone looked at Hunter "Find everyone who hasn't taken shelter yet and get them out of here. I'll deal with this."

Tsunade looked from Hunter to the Hydra "Hunter, you can't-"

"He's a Heartless now!" He cut her off before she could protest "He's my responsibility! Now go."

"Unfortunately my time has run out." said Prime. "I wish you all the best of luck." then he turned back into his charm form, falling into Hunter's hand.

"Green, get over here." Hunter's copy nodded and walked over to his double, then he walking _into_ him, merging the two back into one. "Candy, thanks for your help but you really don't have to stay."

She folded her arms defensively "Pfft, like I'd miss this fight for anything. Just one thing though." She walked up to Hunter and smacked him over the head with her broom.

"OWW!" What the hell was that for!?" he demanded while rubbing his head in pain.

"For teleporting me away last time."

Hunter grumbled something under his breath. "Ok, time to crank things up! Savage Claw mode!" Hunter ran at the Heartless, changing his arm into its claw form as he went.

Naruto suddenly had an idea "Hey Pervy Sage! Why don't you and Granny used you summons against that thing?"

Jiraiya very nearly facepalmed "Because we don't want a giant monster battle in the middle of the village Nar-"

Suddenly everyone besides Naruto froze. He blinked a few times, then he saw the ring covered in roman numerals around each of them. "Hey...what's going on?" he asked aloud.

"Hello Naruto." Naruto spun round and found himself face to face with Thorn. "I wanted to talk. Privately."

"Talk!" Naruto screamed at him "You hurt my friends, you attack my village and now you want to talk you basterd!" without thinking Naruto tried to punch him but Thorn's scarf came to life and wrapped around him, lifting him off the ground and holding him upside-down in front of Thorn

The Nobody tilted his head a little "One of ignorant of his own origins should not be so quick to insult another's parentage. Naruto Namikaze"

Naruto stopped struggling a blinked a few times "W-what did you call me? M-my last name is Uzumaki."

"That is your mother's family name." answered Thorn "Namikaze" he rotated Naruto so he was now right side up and facing the Hokage Monument "is you father's."

Naruto didn't say anything, he was to shocked. All these years he'd wondered about his parents, who they were and the answer had been almost literally in front of him this whole time. Thorn let him go and the boy dropped to the ground. "If you want to know more, look for me. I'll see you."

He began vanishing into a dark portal "No wait! Come back!" Naruto tried to stop him but he was gone before he could reach him.

That was when the stop spell ended "-uto...Hmm?" Jiraiya saw a change in his student, the boy seemed...shaken all of a sudden. "Are you alright kid?" some of the others started to give him concerned looks to but none seemed aware that they'd all just been frozen in time.

Naruto was quiet for a second, wondering if he should tell them. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

_Over to Hunter_

"Why. Won't. You. DIE!" Hunter complained as he hit the snake repeatedly in the head. The titan shock from left to right in an attempt to dislodge him but Hunter managed to hold on just barely. Another head surged towards him, jaws open forcing Hunter to leapt away. Instead of biting Hunter the snake sunk its teeth into one of its other heads instead.

"Ha! Take that you big dumb-Oofff!" Hunter was smacked out of the air by one of the other heads, sending him plummeting to the ground. Moments after he fell Hunter was smashed by two almighty blows from the monsters tail. He managed to get back up only to be whacked through several building by a tail strike. Orochimaru's Heartless opened all its mouths and started firing solid beams of dark energy at the spot where Hunter was, turning the area into a cauldron of flame and ruined buildings. Believing it had won the Heartless let out a roar of triumph.

There was a flash of light and the Hydra's middle head was sliced clean off, falling to the earth and disintegrating to Darkness. The other heads all looked inwards towards the remaining stump. Hunter was standing there, but he'd changed. Both arms were now Heartless claws, his mouth was a jagged line and a tail was hanging down from his lower back along with three spines running the length of his back.

"**Grrrrr. Tear...you...APART!"** he bellowed in a barely human voice. One of the other head tried to bite him but with one slash of his claws he cut it off at the base. He then leapt upwards, slashing through another head at the neck and blowing another two apart with two massive dark bolts fired from each claw. The final head snapped at him but he avoided it and shot back down towards the main body, slicing down as he fell. He hit the ground, and the Hydra split in two, it's body fading into oblivion.

Hunter didn't move for a while then he threw his head back and roared **"RAAAAAARRRRRR! GRRAAA-Bawrrk!?"**

Hunter staggered as a ball of energy hit him from behind and burst through his chest, leaving a gaping hole behind it. He turned his head and saw Thorn standing close by, still holding out the hand he'd used to fire the ball.

"I win this round."

Hunter gave an enraged roar, then like the Hydra he to disintegrated into Darkness.

Thorn folded his arms behind his back, then he surveyed the destruction around him. "Just as planned."

_Twilight Town. DiZ's libratory._

"Still no word from Hunter?" asked Riku. DiZ's angry silence was all the answer he got. "What could be taking him so long?"

"I hope he hasn't gotten into trouble?" said Naminé. Still no response from DiZ.

Riku felt something move behind him. He spun round and- "Gahh!" behind him was a floating ball of darkness with two bright yellow eyes and a broken mouth. It looked a lot like a combo of one of the Dark Ball Heartless and a Possessor. 'How the hell did this thing get in here?' he wondered. Naminé gave a cry of fright and ducked behind some lab equipment while DiZ simply stood up from his chair and observed.

Riku drew his blade and was about to strike it down when it spoke. "Riku!?" he instantly recognised the voice. It was Hunter's no question.

"Hunter?" Riku asked as he lowered his blade.

Naminé heard what he said and slowly came out of hiding "Hunter is that you?"

"No, it's the only other friendly Heartless you know. Of course it's me!" Riku let out a tired sigh. Yeah, this was definitely Hunter. "Now can one of you please tell me just what on earth happened to me!?"

* * *

Well, that was interesting. Orochimaru gone, Hunter stuck as a 'ghost' and Thorn trying to get in our favorite blonde ninja's head. Oh what a tangled web we weave. And things will only get worse.

Until next time :)


	18. Chapter 17

Hello again. Hope you all had a merry Christmas :)

So, here's the latest chapter which sees Hunter well out of his comfort zone and an old enemy returning. Fun all round.

Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 17

Memories can be cruel things sometimes. The operation had gone perfectly, Orochimaru was gone, Hunter had been temporarily disposed of and the attack had been a total success. Thorn had wanted to feel joy and satisfaction but found that he couldn't, then he'd remembered that he had no Heart and all he could do was remember what feeling was like. A Nobody could fake emotions very well, even to the point where they could deceive themselves but they could only fake emotions they could remember. As soon as they ran into an unfamiliar situation they had no memories to draw on and were left with the truth that they felt nothing. It was like having the thing you want most always just beyond your reach.

His melancholy was interrupted when the very angry Sound Four kicked the door in. Thorn turned to face them. He'd known this was coming and a plan had been made. There was always a plan, always an order to follow.

"You...you betrayed Lord Orochimaru AND left us to die!" Kidomaru screamed at him.

Thorn just shrugged "I promised power and I gave it. It's not my fault he never asked about the risks."

That didn't do anything to calm the situation but then it wasn't meant to. "I heard what Hunter said. You _knew_ that the attack would fail! You sabotaged us from the start!" Tayuya pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"Right and wrong. The attack was not meant to destroy the Leaf Village. That comes later. If he chooses to."

By now they'd had just about enough of Thorn and his half-answers. The Sound Four tensed, preparing to strike but in an instant they were surrounded by Dusks and Creepers. Moving with supernatural speed and flexibility the Nobodies wrapped themselves around the ninjas, binding them in place.

"What the!? What are these things!?" asked Kidomaru as he tried vainly to break free.

"I am assuming control of this operation. You can either follow me, or be removed."

The Sound Four all looked at each other briefly.

"Yeah sure I'm in." said Sakon.

"Me too." added Jirōbo

"With you all the way." Tayuya nodded emphatically.

"Um...all hail Lord Thorn." Kiodomaru said nervously.

Thorn's mouth twitched in what might have passed for contempt. He snapped his fingers and the Nobodies let the Sound Four go. Needless to say they were all very relieved.

"Erm, hey. Anyone seen Kabuto?" asked Jirōbo. Everyone shook their heads and murmured 'no'.

"He is of no consequence" said Thorn as he turned back to what he'd been doing before. "He's nothing without Orochimaru. Live in three, two, one."

Most of the wall in front of him was taken up by many individual screens that blared with static before coming to life with images of Kages, Daimyos, village leaders, powerful crime lords, all of whom looked shocked or angry.

"Gentlemen." Thorn began "By now I'm sure you're aware of the attack on the Hidden Leaf village this morning. An attack I was behind. I would like to inform you all that all the rumours you've heard are true. The reanimated corpses, enhanced soldiers, otherworldly abilities they are all at my disposal. And all of them...are for sale." The anger was gone now, replaced with something far more worrisome. "My Creepers will now give you a list of items along with their prices. You are all free to contact me any time, simply ask and a Creeper will appear. Good day." The monitors all went blank.

Kidomaru scratched his head "I'm kinda lost here, what did you just do?"

Thorn turned to look at them all with that unsettling blank gaze of his "I just started the Fourth Shinobi War."

_In the Hidden Leaf_

Tsunade didn't like it. The attack on the village had ended in failure, Orochimaru was seemingly dead, by all accounts she should be feeling overjoyed only she couldn't because there was still so much that didn't add up. Thorn had said that he and Hunter were 'more than kin' which probably meant they were clones (or something like that) and he clearly had an interest in Naruto. Then of course there was Hunter himself who'd once again disappeared without a trace. Hunter had said the Thorn had planned for this attack to fail and that made her worried.

_'Just what is this 'Nobody' up to?'_ she wondered.

"I can't believe he's really gone." said Jiriya, who was standing next to her. The two of them were in her office where she was directing the after battle cleanup.

"You've been a ninja just as long as I have Jiriya. I won't believe he's gone until I see the corpse myself."

Jiriya had to agree with her on that. There had been plenty of times a missing nin had been declared dead only to turn up to cause trouble later.

There was a small puff of smoke and an ANBU wearing a boar mask appearing in front of her desk. "Lady Hokage. I have the status report you requested." Tsunade nodded, giving him permission to carry on "The Hidden Sound invasion has been successfully repelled with all enemy combatants either dead or in custody. Casualties on our side were surprisingly low and most of the structurally damage isn't too severe."

"That's a relief." said Jiriya "If it had lasted any longer than it did things would have been much worse for us."

"What about the prisoners?" asked Tsunade.

"So far they have been unco-"

"Lady Tsunade!" the ANBU was cut off when Shizune burst into the room. Tsunade had sent her to examine the dead Sound ninja and from the look on her face what she'd found hadn't been good. "Sorry but...I found alien DNA in the prisoners blood. I think it's what gave them their increased power!"

"Wait...alien?" Jiriya asked, unsure if he'd heard her right.

"Yes, alien!" Shizune was practically bouncing off the walls "This new DNA has a quadruple helix structure and TWELVE base pairs! It's millions of years ahead of human life!"

Tsunade started massaging her temples. Now she could add aliens to the growing list of weirdness.

"There's more." Shizune continued "This alien DNA is extremely aggressive. In the short term it enhanced all Orochimaru's men but now it's treating its hosts bodies as infections."

"You mean it's killing them." said Jiriya.

Shizune nodded "Yes and quickly. I doubt any of them will make it through the night. Thorn's method of genetic manipulation is...archaic at best but I have noticed differences in some of the prisoners. It's like Thorn was improving his techniques as he went along."

"So with a little more time he could perfect this process? Make soldiers who won't die after a few days?" reasoned Tsunade. "Great. Just what else could go wrong?"

Another ANBU appeared in the office, this one wearing a boar mask "Lady Hokage. Several of our agents just sent in an urgent report. You're not going to like this."

_Back in Twilight Town_

"Woah, woah, snap! Aaaagh! This is weird!" said Hunter as he tried to get the hang of floating about. "Riku, DiZ! What happened to me?"

"You said it yourself Hunter. You were destroyed by Thorn." Riku explained "Heartless can't die but you don't have a physical body anymore."

"So I'm stuck like this forever!" Hunter whined as he floated upside-down over to Riku who turned him the right way up "Thank you."

"No." DiZ entered the conversation "You will get your body back in time, until then you will need to possess a substitute."

"Possess?"

"Yes Hunter, you can possess inanimate objects in this state. Statues and suites of armour would be preferable, something with appendages, but anything will do. Or you could just wait until your body returns." DiZ walked over to his computers and sat down "It seems Thorn has done away with subterfuge. He's either confidant or desperate. I'm leaning towards the former though."

"No kidding!" said Hunter as he floated over to hover above DiZ. He didn't quite stop in time though and ended up passing through a wall "Really weird." he muttered as he floated back into the room "He suped up Orochimaru's goons, let three clone-copy-whatevers loose and set a giant Heartless on the village!"

"Replicas." Riku corrected him "They're called Replicas. I've had...experience with them in the past. The Organisation used data to make a copy of a person but they never quite got it to work right."

Hunter didn't like the sound of that "So Thorn can whistle up an army of villains on demand? Great!"

Riku shook his head "No. It takes time to make a proper replica. He could use them as battle drones in a pinch but they wouldn't be very smart."

"That's quite enough about Thorn for now." said DiZ "I don't suppose that during all this you remembered to decode the Organisations data?"

Hunter sank a little "Um...I er...left it decoding. I-it should be done by now. I take it that our computer is still..."

DiZ turned up the volume dial a little and out of the speakers to the tune of jingle bell rock came **"Stroke-a my, lick-a my, suck on my co-"** he turned to dial back down again. "Still infected? Yes. Once you've regained your body go and retrieve that data. I should hopefully have it fixed by then."

Hunter made an expression that looked like he was scratching his head "Erm why wait? Riku's right here, I could just tell him where to go."

"Riku already has an assignment and it is too important for him to take a detour. And before you ask no, neither I nor Naminé can leave our work here either."

"Right fine, fine." Hunter relented "I'll go back and see how the Leaf's doing and then I'll fetch that disk. You know DiZ the more jobs you give me the more I feel like I'm just your Plan B."

"More like a necessary evil."

Hunter glared at him then he hovered over to Naminé "Hey, when I get back to my old self do you think we can have another ice cream?"

The girl smiled at him in that oddly sad way she always did "I'd like that very much. See you soon Hunter and...be careful."

He smiled wildly back at her "Oh where's the fun in that." then he portaled out.

_Over to the Elemental Nations_

He reappeared in a back street in the Hidden Leaf. Cautiously he hovered upwards to get a better look at the area. It was now night and a half moon was shining down on the village, illuminating the damage done earlier that day. Now that he could see it things didn't look too bad. It had been worse in the last attack. Hunter couldn't see any Sound Ninjas or replicas but there were a lot of Leaf ninjas on patrol. He moved through the village, keeping to the rooftops and using his supernatural senses to stay out of sight. Well, that is until he happened on three familiar faces. Konohamaru, Mogei and Udon were in the street below, hiding in front of a clothing shop.

"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello what do we have here then?" he muttered to himself as he sunk in closer.

"This is a bad idea." said a nervous Udon. "Iruka-sensei told us not to leave so soon after the battle. It's still not safe out here!"

"Aw quit complaining Udon!" Konohamaru turned to face his team "You don't hear Mogei worrying right?" Mogei opened her mouth but before she could speak Konohamaru carried on talking "Right. Giant Monster Patrol team, move out!"

Hunter dropped down into the midst of them and screamed "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" Instead of screaming and running the three children just carried on as normal. "Boo!...Boo?...Am I talking to myself here!?" still nothing. "Am I correct in assuming that none of you can see or hear me?" Hunter asked at Konohamaru. When he got no response he smiled and decided to make the most of this "Konohamaru, your name is ridiculous! Mogei, what the hell is that on your head!? And Udon, wipe your bloody nose man! Are there no tissues in this world or something!?" Unable to hear him the trio went about their business, searching for 'monsters'. Seeing as how he couldn't really do anything Hunter decided to leave them be. Throwing caution to the wind he stated zipping around the town, enjoying his newfound freedom.

Well, that is until he phased into Asuma and Kurenai's room.

"Ahhh! Sweat zombie Jesus my eyes!" he shot upwards through the ceiling, coming to a halt a few feet above the roof. "What has been seen can never be unseen. Brrrrr." he let a shiver run through his non-corporeal body.

"Hey Hunter!"

"SNAP!" Hunter rocketed several feet up into the air. Looking back down at the roof he saw Candy Witch standing there smiling smugly back up at him. Slowly he lowered himself back down again. "Candy? You're still here?"

"Yeah, I was wonderin' where you'd gone. Let me guess, you got your ass handed to you?"

Hunters mouth twitched a little "Yes." he muttered quietly.

Candy's smug grin grew "See, that's what happens when you try and solo a Heartless Lord."

"A what?"

Candy blinked a few times "You...really don't know do you?" Hunter's blank expression was all the answer she needed "Well most Heatless all look pretty much the same, like they've been stamped out of a mould. Lords are different. They're unique because they used to be really powerful villains or something."

Hunter nodded as he took this all in, enjoying the idea that he was a 'lord' "You know quite a bit about Heartless."

Candy leaned back, folding her hands behind her head. "Eh, ya pick things up when you travel the worlds."

"Is that how you learned how to fight to? Picking up odd tips from different worlds?"

"Nah. When I first started out I spent two years in the Traverse Town Defence Force. Yufi and Leon gave us all the basics and we learnt the rest as we went."

Hunter had no idea what she was talking about and his face showed it. "Traverse Town?"

"Yes, it was a refugee world." Hunter stared at her blankly "For refugees? From the Heartless Invasion?" Still nothing."Wow, you really don't know. Ok well 'bout two years ago there was this big tidal wave of Heartless from the Dark Realm, never found out why but they ate like...hundreds of worlds. Everyone who didn't die just drifted through the Lanes Between and eventually found their way to Traverse Town."

"Sounds like fun." said Hunter, dryly.

Candy rolled her eyes "Oh you have no idea. The Heartless weren't the worst of it, the people were. Putting Daleks and Necrons together was definitely a mistake. Then there was all the Elves and their constant whining. And trying to get Klingons, Orks and Dwarves out of the bar. And of course my roommates. Serana was ok but all that dragon Alduin did was moan. And-"

"Ok I get the picture." Hunter interrupted her "Not good times. So what are your plans now?"

"Same as always." Candy walked to the edge of the roof and looked out at the village "Explore every nook and cranny then move on. There's a whole multiverse out there and I want to see it all. Just one thing first though." Without warning she trapped Hunter in a crushingly tight hug "YOU ARE SO KAWAI!"

"Gaahhh! Air! Need air!"

After about thirty seconds of squeezing Candy released him, then she brought out her broom, threw it out in front of her and hopped on it. To Hunters surprise the broom started levitating then flying around with Candy riding it like a surf board. She made one slow circle round the roof "If you ever need me, ya know how ta reach me." then she flew off into the night.

Hunter watched her grow smaller and smaller until she faded from sight "I make the weirdest friends." he muttered to himself then he felt a small jolt that made him wince. He blinked a few times, then moved on.

_The Hyūga compound_

Hinata couldn't sleep. Everything that had happed the past few days was just so...overwhelming. Hunter, two invasions, the way she'd lost control, Naruto's disappearance then sudden return. She remember hearing once that warm milk before bed could help. Deciding it was worth a shot she got up from her bed, left her room and headed for the kitchen.

_With Hunter_

"Find a body...body. Hmmmm." he briefly considered a shop window dummy but decided against it. While it did have articulated hands, good for interacting, it was made of wood and would most likely come apart in a fight. The search continued for about half an hour with no results "Grrr! This place is like Fantasy Japan! You think there'd be some samurai armour 'round here somewhere!" He was now scouring a building in a small compound on the villages outer edges. As he floated down the wooden halls he spotted a worthy vessel. An old suit of samurai armour just at the end of the corridor. "Bingo!"

_Over to Hinata_

Getting around the compound at night was a tricky business. You had to be quiet enough not to wake anyone up but not so stealthy that the guards mistook you for an intruder. As Hinata walked she saw someone standing a few paces in front of her, facing down a side corridor. For a split second she thought it was a person, then she remembered that it was just that antique armour display. She never really understood why that thing was even here, as far as she knew her clan had never worn armour like that as it hampered their ability to discharge chakra bursts from any part of their bodies. Dismissing it as a mystery to be solved later she carried on her way, walking right in front of the armour at the exact moment Hunter tried to possess it. He tried to stop but he was still getting used to controlling his new form and was unable to stop himself from crashing into Hinata.

"Ohhh Snaaaaaa-!"

_Dive into heart_

Hinata wasn't sure what happened. She felt like she was just waking up but she knew that was impossible. She opened her eyes but it was so dark she couldn't see anything. Now that was odd. There was a full moon that night and coupled with the lights outside she should have been able to see perfectly. As she continued to look however she realized with mounting horror that she wasn't in the compound anymore, all around there was nothing but an impenetrable darkness. Hinata panicked and jumped to her feet. That was when she saw what she was standing on. The floor was a massive circular stain glass window featuring a sleeping image of her set against a forest hill background. Hinata just stared at the image of herself, taking several steps back.

"Well, this is jusssssst peachy!"

Hinata nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun round and saw Hunter standing behind her. He too was staring at the glass but he was wearing a very annoyed expression. "One job. One simple furking thing! And it's all gone tits up. I swear I've been cursed by something."

"H-hunter!? Wha...where are we? What are you doing here? Why am Ihere?"

Hunter scratched his head. "Well...I can't be one hundred percent but...I think we're...Yeah I'm pretty sure this" he gestured at the floor "is your heart."

Hinata just stared down at the glass floor, trying to get her head round this. "My...heart..."

"Yeah, you can tell because there's a big image of Naruto right over there."

She looked over in the direction Hunter was pointing and saw that in the top corner of the picture above her images head were several small blue circles that contained other people's faces. Her team mates Kiba and Shino where there, along with her sister Hanabi and just like Hunter said one of a smiling Naruto.

"Well, it's better than a shrine in your basement." Hunter joked, then he noticed Hinata's embarrassed expression. "Wait, you don't really...oh Hinata!"

"I-it's just a picture with a few candles!" she blurted out without meaning to. Hinata flushed and turned her gaze skywards. She forgot her embarrassment instantly when she saw what was hanging above them. It was another stain glass window or 'heart' like hers but instead of a person it showed a massive cat like monster set against an image of a dark purple ocean with a single coral like arch rising out of the water. Hunter was the only other person here so this 'heart' must belong to him and that meant that the monster it showed was what Hunter really was.

She looked over at Hunter and saw that he was looking up to. "Yeah, that's me. Please don't make any cat-person jokes."

This wasn't that big a revelation, they all knew by now that Hunter wasn't human. "How did...this happen?" Hinata asked.

"Completely your fault." said Hunter bluntly."I was trying to poses that armour then you got in the way at the last second so..."

"You're...possessing me?!" That was _not_ what Hinata wanted to hear.

"Erm...yeah. Hang on, let me check how things are going out there."

_Back in reality_

Hunter opened his, erm, Hinata's eyes. Apparently she'd fallen during the possession and all he could see was the wooden floor. He gingerly got up, getting used to this new flesh and blood body. "Wait." he suddenly realised "Flesh and blood...I have skin...muscles...TASTE BUDS!" Hunter ran off, quick as lightning, following his nose to the kitchen. Without a care he threw open every cupboard and started eating anything he could get his hands on. "Soooo delicious!" he said through mouthfuls of food "I'd almost forgotten what eggs tasted like!"

Back in the dream, Hinata was aware of what was going on outside and she wasn't exactly thrilled about all the food Hunter was putting into _her_ body. "Hunter! Y-you're supposed to cook that first!" she pleaded as he downed several raw steaks. After about five minutes the kitchen was destroyed. Cupboard doors had been ripped off their hinges, tables upturned and what food Hunter hadn't eaten was now covering the floor. In the middle of all this mess sat Hunter, happily scoffing mouthfuls of cake icing from a bowl. "Ok Hunter t-that's enough!" Hinata yelled with as much authority as she could muster "You've had your fun. N-now get out of my body!"

Hunter gave her a pleading look "But everything's soooooo tasty! Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to taste anything!"

"N-no! Get out of me now!"

He raised an eyebrow coyly "Ya know, taken out of context this conversation could be taken totally the wrong way." Hunter suddenly looked serious and started looking all around "There aren't any shitty fanfic writers around here, are there?"

"Hunter! Get out!"

"Make me!"

Hinata knew that she couldn't force him out so she had to convince him to leave. "Hunter. Y-you know that all that food your eating...eventually has to...come out."

He didn't understand what she meant for a moment, then realization hit him like a smack to the face "Eww! Oh fu-fine. You win." Hunter crossed his arms and...did nothing.

After about two minutes of both of them just standing there Hinata realised what was going on "You don't know how to leave do you?"

"No." Hunter squeaked.

Over in the real world Hunter had put down the icing bowl and was holding his head in his hands, trying desperately to think of a way out. Having a real body again was fun but he knew in the long run it would be bad. He just couldn't push it as far as his Heartless body, that and it didn't belong to him in the first place. Actually now that he thought about it he had no idea what effect taking over Hinata's body would have. All that 'Power of Darkness' suddenly stuck inside could _not_ be healthy. He picked up the bowl again and looked at his reflection.

Well, most of the changes weren't _too_ drastic. Her hair had gotten a few shades darker and was now shoulder length and a little spiky and her eyes were no longer the 'normal' pale white but bright yellow like Hunters. That's when he noticed the clothes he was wearing now. Hinata's pyjamas had been replaced by a strange suite that covered her body right up to her neck. It was jet black in colour apart from a stylised red Heartless symbol on her stomach and it had an odd tissue like texture. Her left arm was covered in dark purple armour plating that extended from her wrist to her shoulder and there were two similar metal greaves on her shins.

"That's...strange." muttered Hunter. "This seems...familiar. Where have I..."

Hinata had gone red with embarrassment. This gladiator style outfit was a lot more revealing than she was used to. 'Oh please don't let anyone see me like this.' she prayed. Outside was suddenly tinted orange as the sun started to rise over the village.

"Oh no." said Hinata, panic in her voice "It's sun-up! P-people will be getting up any second!"

"This early?" Hunter looked at her incredulously. "Right, we're out of here!"

He smashed through the nearest wall and left the compound at lightning speed, heading for the woods beyond.

"Were are you going?" demanded Hinata. "Y-you can't just run off with my body like this!"

"As of now this is _my_ body too!" he replied as he shot up into the tree line and started leaping from branch to branch. "Right now I need some space to figure out how to get out of you! Pfffft tehehehe!"

"Hunter!"

"Sorry!"

_Over in the Hokage's office_

Tsunade was on her fourteenth cup of coffee now. In addition to Jiriya and Shizune just about every senior ninja in the Leaf was there, all wearing worried looks at the news she'd just given them all.

"He's selling all that?" repeated Guy.

"That's what our agents say." said a very tired Tsunade as she took another sip. "I don't need to tell you that this will only end one way. Another Shinobi war. And with all this new technology suddenly flying around there's a very real chance that no one will survive this one."

"This was probably Thorns plan all along." muttered Kakashi.

Jiriya wasn't so convinced "He doesn't seem the type to care for money. I get the feeling that this isn't the end, just another step."

"There's only one person who knows for sure." said Tsunade "We can't wait any longer. We need to capture Hunter now and find out everything he knows about Thorn! Any ideas?"

After a moments uncomfy silence Kurenai stepped forward "I think I do."

_Back with Hinata and Hunter_

"But there _has_ to be a way to get you out!" Hinata moaned. They were no longer running and were now just walking through the villages outskirts.

Hunter grunted as he filled with the armour plates "Hinata, I can't even figure out how to get _this_ off. Leaving your body might not be possible until I've got enough energy to re-grow mine."

"And how long will that take?"

"I don't know. Hours. Maybe a day. This has never happened to me before."

Inside the Dive into Heart Hinata tapped hunter on the shoulder and pointed up at his Dive. "I don't think we have a day."

Hunter looked up at his 'heart' and realised what she meant. It had moved, descended, and was now visibly closer to them. "Not good. That is...oh snap!"

"W-what happens when they meet?" Hinata asked fearfully.

"I...don't know but...I'm guessing one consumes the other." That didn't help the situation. Hinata looked like she was about to have a panic attack. "Oh, and there's one more thing." Hinata looked over at him "We're being followed."

Back in the real world Hunter spun round and threw a lightning spell at a tree behind him. In the moment before the spell connected three figures in black cloaks and ANBU masks leapt out of hiding and landed on the ground in front of him.

"Now, I'm having a rough day." Hunter said as he paced up and down in front of them. "So, why don't you just run back to Tits McGee and- SHIT!" Hunter ducked as a Kunai sailed over his head and embedded itself in a tree behind him.

"Go inform Lord Danzo." said one of the ANBU as he drew another kunai. The one on his left nodded and vanished in a swirl of leaves just as the one on the right charged at Hunter, drawing a sword from under his cloak and slicing upwards at him. Acting on instinct Hunter blocked with his armour covered arm and quick as lightning he punched the ANBU in the face, shattering his masked and sending him flying back.

'One down.' thought Hunter as he faced the last ANBU. His mask was some kind of reptile with large teeth, maybe a crocodile. He drew several kunai and threw them at Hunter, all of them missing and embedding themselves in the ground around him. Then the small paper tags attached to each one exploded, covering the area in a cloud of smoke.

The Crocodile ANBU had retreated up to the treetops to get a better vantage point. 'Prefect.' he thought 'That toxic smoke should have put Hunter out of...huh!?"

Hunter burst out of the smoke, appearing before the ninja. Before he could react he slammed his palm into the mans stomach and blasted him with an unstable mix of Chakra and Dark power that smashed him threw the tree and down to the ground.

The ANBU groaned and tried to get up but in a second Hunter was on top of him, holding his hand over the man's face "Thunder!" the spell shocked the man into unconsciousness as Hunter let his smoking body fall. "Ok, that was fun...Oh and by the way, Hinata."

"Yes?"

"You erm...know that first guy I punched, the one whose mask broke?"

Hinata nodded, after all that had only been moments ago.

Hunter smiled sheepishly "Well...I think I broke your wrist."

"WHAT!?" Hinata screamed.

"Sorry."

With Hinata still freaking out in his head Hunter cast a Cure spell on his hand. "Now just a little...and all my magic's gone. Bugger." That was the one downside to Cure, it didn't work in half measures. Even when it was only being used to heal minor wounds it drained every last drop of magic.

With that out of the way Hunter started examining his fallen foes. Quickly his eyes picked up on a trace of magic coming from the fallen ninjas mouth of all places. Carefully he took of the Croc ANBU's mask and opened his mouth. Tattooed on his tongue was a hexagram, three solid black lines above two broken ones.

Inside the Dive Hunter scratched his head "What the hell is that?"

"Juinjutsu." said Hinata, who was also curious.

Hunter shot her a sideways look "Eh?"

"Juinjutsu is the erm...a shinobi technique used to bring someone under your control." Hinata explained "By applying a seal to someone's body you can make them do whatever you want a-and hurt them if they refuse."

"So it's like that thing on Neji's head, right?"

Hinata nodded grimly.

"So...what does this seal do?"

"I erm...don't know. H-he's an ANBU ninja so maybe it's to keep him from revealing sensitive information."

Hunter folded his arms, "Great, so kicking the shit out of him won't work. Time to check his pockets." he set to work rummaging, starting with the man's jacket "Let's see...lint, knife...shuriken, paper tags...bingo! Map!"

That instantly made Hinata suspicious. This man just happened to have a map on him. It just screamed 'Trap!'.

She told Hunter as much but he didn't seem to mind. "Oh of course it's a trap!" he said as he started following the map. "That or whoever's in charge of this lot is supremely stupid. I heard that guy mention a 'Danzo'? Who's he?"

"Danzō Shimura." said Hinata "He's one of the Village Elders and before that he was a very powerful Shinobi. It's a poorly kept secret that he used to run a division of ANBU and that he often went against the Third Hokage's orders."

"Sounds like a fun guy. I reckon our odds of running into him are, ooooh ...seventy percent."

After walking deeper into the forest the map lead them to a hidden hatch that connected to an underground tunnel network. Hunter wasn't really surprised by this, after all what self respecting ninja village wouldn't have a secret passages and whatnot. Hinata explained to him that passages like this were often used by ANBU as a means of getting about unseen and were normally booby trapped to hell.

"You know an awful lot about secret stuff." Hunter observed as he climbed down into the tunnel.

"I'm the heiress of Konohas most powerful clan. That and most people...tend not to notice me that much."

"People or Naruto." said Hunter with a wry smile. Hinata instantly flushed crimson.

Eventually Hunter reached a large square room that was empty save for a stone pedestal in the centre. Without a care Hunter walked up to it and found...

"A summon charm!" he declared in surprise "Where the hell did-" he picked it up, and that's where the trouble started. A large glowing seal sprang to life on the floor, encircling him with a wall of light. Hunter had been caught in something like this before and from the looks of it he wouldn't be able to escape as easily this time. The room was now almost full of ANBU ninjas that had just appeared out of nowhere, along with one other man.

Unlike the rest he wasn't wearing a mask. He had lanky brown hair, a 'x' shaped scar on his chin and bandages covering the right side of his face. "Interesting." he said calmly. "You knew it was most likely a trap yet you walked into it anyway. Is that confidence or arrogance Hunter?"

Hunter folded his arms "Let's see here. Bad hair, underground lair, Saturday morning cartoon villain vibe. You must be Danzō."

"'Villain'? Interesting choice of words. Especially coming from a Heartless." Hunter's eyes widened "Yes" Danzō continued "I know what you are. I'll admit I am a little surprised by your...current state. Is the Hyūga heiress still aware in there?"

"Yeah, she's still here, she's just riding shotgun. Now how do you know about me?" Hunter wasn't just interested, he needed Danzō to keep talking long enough for him to figure a way out of this mess.

The elder ninja seemed reluctant at first but eventually he spoke "Almost a year ago there was a meteor shower near the village. In the crater was a small cube, a store of information not of this world. It told me of other worlds beyond ours and of being with ruthless and unimaginable power. Power that makes even the greatest Shinobi look like mere ants in comparison." He gripped his cane a little tighter "An one of those beings followed it here."

"You...you're the reason Thorn is here!" Hunter yelled.

"Yes." Danzō admitted, although he didn't seem too broken up about it. "That was...an error of judgment on my part. If I'd have known the trouble that cube would bring I'd have destroyed it myself."

"Well, you didn't!" yelled a very angry Hunter, slamming his fist against the barrier "All this mess is **your** fault you arrogant, self centred di-"

"Firstly I had no way of knowing that Thorn would come to this world." Danzō pointed out "And you're hardly one to take the moral high ground here. I've taken many lives in my time. Done things that are to many, morally reprehensible. But all of it was for a to keep the village as a whole strong and secure. How many have died to slake your hunger hmm?"

Hunter didn't have an answer for him, even inside the Dive into Heart Hinata was giving him a strange look. "What do you want." he finally asked. "You didn't bring me down here just to take shots at me."

"You've so far proven almost impervious to harm, even destroying you isn't a permanent solution. So I'm simply going to seal you away down here forever, where you can do no more harm." Danzō gave a signal to his men and they instantly set to work revealing more hidden seals around the room and activating them one by one.

"You can't do this!" insisted Hunter "I'm the only one who can stop Thorn! Without me here to protect you-"

"Protect!" Danzō cut him off. "Now _that_ is bad comedy. Your antics around this village have kept everyone's attention solely focused on you. You're the main reason Thorn managed to go unnoticed as long as he did!"

"Well...what about Hinata!?" Hunter continued "She's not part of this!"

"I'm afraid she is. You said yourself that she's still aware inside you and I can't have her revealing any of this. The Hyūga clan does still have another heiress, that and Hiashi is still young. He can always have more children."

Hinata looked absolutely horrified. She was going to be trapped forever underground with Hunter! She was going to die down here with and no one, not her friends or family would know!

"Well you've forgot one thing!" Hunter smirked, holding up the summon charm "You locked me in here with this!"

As if on command the charm began to glow, transforming and taking shape into...

"ME! Deadpool! Took you long enough. Seriously, how did it take you this long to write me in dickhead! Ok, this chapter's done, roll credits!"

This is a book, there are no credits.

"Oh whatever, just end here. Cliff-hanger time!"

* * *

Yes, I finally got Deadpool in. Just remember, you asked for it.

**I'm only in the last two lines Dickhead! That's barely a cameo! But don't worry boys and girls, the'll be plenty to wet your Deadpool appetite next chapter won't there?**

Well, I'm still not sure your the bet fit fo-

(sound of swords drawing) **Won't there!?**

Yeah, sure whatever you say Mr Pool! nervous laugh Ohhh shit.

Till next time.


End file.
